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WHO BUILDS? 


A B O MA JSr CU: 

Completed in the month of Addar (which is the last half of February 
and the first half of March). 

The ‘^Protecting Deity of Addar — the Seven Great Gods.^^ 

The cosmogonic myth of Addar — “The return to the cultivation of 
the Earth after the cataclysm.” 


DEDICATED TO BROTHER BUILDERS 
OF THE 32=> AND S3^ 

OF ANCIENT SCOTTISH RITES 
AND 

TO BUILDERS YET MORE ANCIENT 
THE WORLD THROUGHOUT. 


Written and Finished in 1903 . 
Copyrighted in 1909 . 


Evelken Laura Mason, 

If 

Brookline, Massachusetts. 
4 St. Paul Street. 


\ 


rfVi 



Rac*3i'i/ed from 
y right Offio®. 

2lMy’09 



LIBRftSY ot CONGRESS 

Two Gooi"^ 

APR 12 1W9 

Copyriijnl.' _ y 
j CUSS XXc. ■ 

COi'- 


FORE-WORD. 








« When I saw this, I wondered to see such great and noble 
things. And again I admired on account of these Virgins 
who were so handsome and delicate and who stood with such 
firmness and constancy, as if they could carry the whole 
Heaven.” — Hermes. 





\ 


h 


“Yet all are born with the same portion of divinity within 
them, which we call soul. With much more than half of 
humanity the germ remains always a germ; always weighed 
down by the lymphatic, materialistic propensities of the 
husk — the body.” 




INTRODUCTION. 


T O the question, ^^Who Builds?’^ this story essays to an- 
swer, ^^He or she builds who unflinchingly holds to the 
architectural design which is inspiringly set before him or her, 
by Indwelling Power. 

For this Holy Spirit, this Indwelling Power, this Kara Avis, 
real and never forsaking, when it has free course and is glori- 
fied by intelligent obedience, wins each individual soul to its 
best development: and, therefore, in-so-far, wins the Race on 
its upward way. 

The philosophy of the story recognizes that step by step with 
these unfolding aspirations, each soul has to deal with the 
results of the deeds of Hhe undead-self’ — sometimes called 
^ karma,’ sometimes inherited weakness’ and sometimes Hhe 
old Adam.’ And this philosophy emphazises the fact that 
ignorance relative to the results of one’s previous incarnation 
‘is not bliss’; nor is it ‘folly to be wise’ concerning the results 
of one’s past lives. Because the awakening of such latent 
knowledges concerning the results of past-mental-and-moral- 
accumulations, not only renders one sympathetic with persons 
who are struggling up out of lower planes of development but 
secures the retention of childhood’s alert longing for the next 
bit of needed Wisdom: awakening in the child’s soul, subtle 
memories, in a way that brings him, with courageous gladness, 
to go on with the business of character building, in the spirit 
set forth in the hymn 

^Thiis far Life’s Lord has led us on. 

^Thus far Life’s Power prolongs our days. 

^And every evening shall make known 
‘Some fresh memorial of Life’s Grace.’ 

The story emphasizes the fact that the average child of this 
epoch is born possessed of a mentality so highly vitalized by 


Introduction 


V 


the Spiritually-electrizing current of this Great Day, that, 
from the first, consciously or unconsciously, if unmeddled 
with, he or she takes up the continuous work of character- 
building, just as a person of high achievement, each morning 
takes up ‘work’ from where at slumber-time the night before 
it had been peacefully laid aside. It assumes that, an ego 
who is made conscious that his existence is foundationed on 
such and such passed experiences (good, bad, or indifferent) 
naturally turns, alertly receptive of The Supernal Influence, 
which, invited by heartfelt-childlike prayer, becomes — not 
only the attendant Instructor but — the Constructor of body, 
brain and being: as, working ^in and through^ such a rever- 
ently intelligent recipient. It directs and concentrates that 
ego^s thoughts on Virtue, Truth, Justice and Freedom. — 
Thus building (by use of this concentrated-Thought-food) cell 
on cell and tissue on tissue of brain and body: till, 'the whole 
man is renewed’ seven fold: (time-given) with the result 
toward which St. Paul yearned, when he said, "That which is 
in part, shall be done away, being swallowed up in that which 
is to come.” 

The story opens at that crisis in the beginning of the Nine- 
ties when seen and unseen worlds, running together, came in 
like a flood on the souls of many other deluged mortals; — be- 
sides the five from whom, ordinary resources seemed sud- 
denly taken away, by Archibald Landseer’s practicalization of 
the theory, that, an act done with decisive regard to the 
ultimate end to be gained, but tends to the final construction 
of What-is-to-be. A theory which he held, therefore justifies 
a man in flinging in himself, or any one else, in order to bridge 
a chasm: — if the bridging of it, by any means secures the swifter 
attainment of a proposed-End. 

Lamed often had had to meet Archibald’s precipitant, ruth- 
less tendencies, by her certainty that, in nature, no unnatural 
chasms exist: for that what seemed so, were but serviceable 
results, pointing to like serviceable other results; which re- 
quired scientific scrutiny; not sacrilegious slaughter. But her 
sight of the fact, that failure could come only from a confused 
understanding of the thing to be done, was little less annoying 
to Landseer’s precipitant-pugnacity than was her extreme 
alertness against either having a 'confused understanding of 


VI 


Introduction 


the thing to be done/ — or, of submitting to the unnecessary- 
failures, that result from acting, while under a confused under- 
standing of the thing to be done. 

How terrible then, had been to her, the years in which she 
had lived amid misrepresenting-complications, her hold on 
the underlying facts of which, had but made her spiritually- 
scientific-scrutiny of these facts to appear to be more a matter 
of excessive self-reference and antagonism than a matter of 
her sight of facts vitally worthy of attention ? 

But with old-fashioned carelessness, she had vowed obedi- 
ence to a man who demanded obedience from his wife: — just 
that: and a (to him) injurious self-effacement. 

So, two equal forces had met. Inertia had set in. For 
to her, prosperity, to be of worth, included that which would 
enable her personally to build for posterity (as she knew she, 
by nature could, and therefore must build) by holding to that 
Integrity of Conscience which allies Individual iNtelligence 
with that Omni-Science in which — Age after Age, there is no 
‘Variableness nor shadow of turning.^ To possess more and 
more abundantly this conscious Union with Omni-Science so 
as to more and more empower her children with its Affluence — 
that, was her aim. But — two forces had met, causing her to 
lapse into that silence, which well befalls those, who wisely 
await the current of outer events: though even their silence 
comes to be misleading: as it then appears to be but part of 
‘the general conspiracy-of-silence’ concerning the fundamental 
facts of the evolution of Humanity. 

For years all that had remained for her, was, with courteous, 
discriminative-endurance, to do duty on the home-spot where 
— in time she might thus come to reign in joy. Her strength 
lay in the fact that she was possessed of this power of dis- 
criminative-endurance. It was her wealth. It was hers by 
Karma, and, by and through long lines of ancestry; belonging 
as she did to the opposition parties: who — whether Jehovists 
or Eloihimists: Brahmans or Vishnaites: Guelph or Ghibelline: 
Worshippers of Osiris or Isis: Protestants or Catholics — for 
thousands of years, had each inclined to make opposers walk 
the plank set for them, much as of old, pirates had made re- 
fractory prisoners, walk the plank whose end was in the sea. 

But she had ascended from those ancestors up to cool, sci- 


Introduction 


Vll 


entific heights : from whence, now looking, she reviewed the 
ways trodden by those who possibly had had to fight for (or 
else be knocked off of) the little elevations whereon they 
wished to self-sovereignly Home themselves and their Mental- 
heirs and representatives: while seeking to attain to the prac- 
ticalization of their Spiritual insights of Hhe Possible’; — 
though in doing it, they had to suffer hardship, even in the 
keeping of their foothold on the Rock of that mental-isolation: 
commonly incidental to the gaining of that Self-Sovereignty 
— without which nothing. And as had done some of her 
ancestors, so now did Lamed: as she stood on the ‘rock of 
Ages’: keeping firm-foot-hold on it; and firm head-and hand- 
hold on the children; as, philosophically studying their past, 
they too were thus prepared for this then, ‘ Oncoming Day of 
Disciplinary-Disast er . ’ 

A day, to the arrival of which, she hopefully had looked 
forward: knowing that — if her courage did not fail her — she 
then would be able to use for the world The Results which 
she had brought out of the spiritual crisis through which 
she had passed. Revealing to younger-souls that the Elder 
Brother’s Union with Real Spirit, had included a step up out 
of the possibility of further subjection to those mere animal 
magnetisms which are so antipathetic to the attainment of 
allegiance to The ‘Angel of The Covenant’! The Angel who, 
through all those dark days, had ‘talked to her of righteous- 
ness, of bountifulness, of chastity and of piety’: and whose 
voice, ‘hearing,’ had caused her to listen: and listening, had 
enabled her to understand and to do, the Will of Wisdom.’ 

All this had come to Lamed (and in their degree) to the rest 
of the five, on whom sudden disaster seemed to have fallen at 
the opening of this story. 

A story, the philosophy of which is supposed to show that, 
when womanhood shall be enabled unflinchingly to sustain 
Intellectual-Union with the ‘ Spirit-of-Spirits ’ (the breath-of- 
lives) then, the Affluence of this Spirit — as It is breathed 
forth in thoughts and acts of Virtue, Truth, Freedom and 
Justice-to-all, — will expedite in the Race, the Evolution of 
that form of Spirit, ‘which is as the form of the Son of God: 
who walks through the midst of the Fire unhurt’! 

The philosophy of the story further attempts to show, that 


Introduction 


viii 

this will transpire not by the suspension of the Law of Fire: 
but — because of the administration of that Law by a cool 
Intellection which will not, by excess of Airless-Heat, smother 
the Fire to a darkling smudge: but which (as Aristotle sug- 
gests) will bring ^brains, the wettest and coolest part of being,' 
to reign conjointly with the inspiration and respiration of Su- 
pernal Airs ; so as to cool and calm the Fires of Life, in a way 
to keep steady the flame on the Hearth-stone where a self- 
poised manhood is homed and where children are born, who 
thus shall be as scientiflcally-protected from falling under the 
mental-malevolence of Mysticism, as they are, from falling 
into the degradation of Materialism. 

Eveleen Laura Mason. 
Mid-Winter, Nineteen Hundred and Three. 


CHAPTER HEADINGS. 


PAGE 

Chapter I. 

Flotsam and Jetsam 1 

Chapter II. 

** For there are set thrones of Judgment*^ 29 

Chapter III. 

Jetsam 43 

Chapter IV. 

^‘Without Liberty there are few virtues. Despotism breeds pusilla- 
nimity and deepens the abyss of vice.’' American Declaration 
of Independence y first uttered in 1766 in the Province of Louisi- 
ana 54 

Chapter V. 

Wisdom is Liberty and Liberty is Wisdom. Each with the other 
must abide, 

For to be truly free, as God would have you be, Wisdom and Will 

must co-incide 65 

Chapter VI. 

Unordinated values, ordinated according to Divine ordination ... 78 

Chapter VII. 

The ordinating of some kinds of value 112 

Chapter VUI. 

The Inordinates 140 


X 


Chapter Headings 


PAGE 


Chapier IX 

''For this cause the Lord sent his Angel who is over the beast, Hegrin: 

and stopped his mouth that he should not devour thee ’^ — Hennas 159 

Chapter X. 

The rationalization and the divinitization of latent faculties . . . 169 

Chapter XI. 

How can I steadily keep my body, soul spirit and the results of 
external activities up to the level of the three-fold-power whose 
impulsions from the fixed center within, work out the unification 
of circumferences? 185 

Chapter XII. 

"He that chiefly owes himself to himself is the substantial man” — 

Sir Thomas Browne 202 

Chapter XIII. 

"A great scholar in the highest sense is, not one who simply depends 
on an infinite memory but also on infinite and electric-power of 
combination, bringing together from the Four Winds, like the 
Angel of The Resurrection, what else were dust from dead- 


men^s bones, into the unity of Breathing-Life ” — De Quincey . 211 
Chapter XIV. 

"Now is the winter of our discontent overpast” 233 


Chapter XV. 

"The Medial Spirit: Virgo. 

Simple and mixed, both form and substance, forth to perfect Being 
started like three darts shot from a bow three-corded. Thus even 
at the moment of its issuing did Eternal Sovran beam entire His 
three-fold operation at one act produced coeval. Yet in order 
each created, his due station knew. Those the highest, pure In- 


Chapter Headings 


XI 


telligence were made. Mere Power, the lowest. In the midst, 
the Medial-Spirit, bound in strict league. Intelligence and 
Power, form and substance in unsevered-bond’^ 


Chapter XVI. 

*^Oh, righteous gods: how few of all the great are just to Heaven, and 
to their promise true ” — Odyssey 

Chapter XVII. 

Demand that spiritual liberation, which neither cultivating selfish- 
ness nor stifling it, lays hold on that Omnipotent Power, which 
enables justice and generosity” 

Chapter XVIII. 

There is a triuall kinde of seeming good religion! Yet I find but one 
to be embraced, which must be drawn from Papist, Protestant or 
Puritana’ — Time's Whistler y E. E. T. S., p. 1. 

‘By thy triple-shape as thou art seen 
Tn heaven, earth, hell: and everywhere a Queen, 

‘Grant this my first desire^ 

Chapter XIX. 

Known as souls enabled to rebuild the body they inhabit, to an extent 
limited only by Rectitude to personal ideal of The Possible 


PAGE 

253 


274 


277 


301 


327 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 


PAGE " 


American Waterlily Foreword 

The geometrically imaged garden plot 97 

Hebraic sketch of the story of character-building 160 

Down among the frogs, the lilypads and tadpoles 176 

The bull-frog on the lilypad with the lotus-bud at his heart .... 177 

The re-incarnated monkey-men come back to let their eyes see, their 

ears hear and their mouths speak no evil 194 

Austrian doubled-headed Eagle with the dancing lion and fluttering 

birds at its heart 222 

Russian double-headed Eagle with the king of himself seated on 

white horse with the boar under its hoofs 240 

Saxon White Horse 251 

The winged Mercury receiving message from the Medial Spirit Virgo, 260 
Mercury hieing away, challenging the gods to hear and obey . . . 261 

The Egyptian Ankh, symbolizing the anchor of the soul .... 327 




'.'I 


WHO BUILDS? 


CHAPTER I. 

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.* 

/^N Frantze at this crisis, life came in like a flood. And as 
flotsam, careening in the tide, smites the sight of one 
standing on a rock in the midst of wreckage, so he was smitten 
by the sight of himself, the oldest of the children: and of the 
roof for the stability of which he had been held accountable: 
and of the whirl of complications which had climaxed with 
the coming of the letter announcing Landseer’s death on his 
arrival in England; and of Mrs. Landseer’s closed door, which 
had excluded the children, as the house door held in Tama’s 
hand and her words: ^^Madame’s thanks, nothing is required,” 
had excluded the assistance proffered by visitors. 

He stood as if stunned by concussionary detonations sent 
forth from the conflicts of the unburiable-past; yet, a’strain 
and alert to grasp the relation of that past to the portentous 
announcement of the black-bordered letter; the virulence of 
which lay in the mystery it concealed, which was more por- 
tentous still. 

The letter was dated September 3rd, 1890. A date near that 
which had been forecast as the time when the sun passing into 
new constellations, would be followed by events which would 
stagger the earth. 

‘ ♦Flotsam is ^oods which lie floating on the surface of the sea when a ship is 
wrecked, in distmction from Jetsam, which is goods thrown into the sea when a 
ship is in danger of wreckage, for the purpose of lightening her, and which re- 
mams at sea without coming to land.’ 


2 


Who Builds ? 


The set time had come. But where now was he who had 
sought to concentrate public attention on portions of He- 
brew history, Hhe complications of which,’ Mrs. Landseer 
had said, ‘could be brutally reenacted if manceuverers de- 
voted themselves to energizing murderous passions which, 
after decades of world-wide rapine and warfare, could then 
but be dealt with through the individual development of 
fealty to the unwritten law of Jurisprudence. Jurisprudence, 
which intuitively treats compulsory-law in the light of under- 
lying principles and characteristic tendencies.’ 

“For,” she had said, “jurisprudential-methods deal with 
the inherent dynamic-impetus which controls beings who are 
fully individualized.” 

Frantze remembered how Landseer was angered by this 
statement, which he called ‘a mere bewildering and berid- 
dleing of the simple fact that the thirty-years war, then on, 
would culminate in such a world-wide victory as would en- 
throne, world-wide, the Anglo-Saxon race:: who then would 
command peace: and next would be ready to teach the phi- 
losophy of jurisprudence (as a New Education), the possession 
of which is to become omen and cognomen of Rulers.’ 

That had quite sounded like a noble outlook. Yet Frantze 
had wondered why Landseer and his theorists did not, rather 
hold to the business of cultivating world-wide this innate pos- 
session instead of planning to kill world-wide its innate pos- 
sessors. 

And now, a’halt before what seemed to him to be an arrest 
in the whole proceeding, he remembered the care with which 
Mrs. Landseer had emphasized the re-statement that this 
jurisprudential power and method of dealing with self and 
others is at-one with the latent (even when unrecognized 
and unutilized) dynamic impulse that controls Individuals, 
popularly and rightly called Conscience. Remembering, that 
Landseer received her repeated impressment of her idea as if 
a personal reflection on his ability were conveyed to him by the 
remark. 

The statement had been, at least impressive enough to 
have sent the boy (with their fashion of following up a matter 
under discussion) to hunt up the word ‘individual’: so 
struck was he with Lamed’s evident certainty that not to be 


Who Builds f 


3 


individual or individualized included some lack, which 
amounting to little less than a personal-deformity was a 
to-he-rectified personal calamity. He of course, discovered 
the word came from individu-us: and meant, ‘not to be di- 
vided.’ 

And now as he thought of it. Individuality appealed to 
him as including a Self- Wholeness, the overwhelming sense 
of the Majesty of which, so enlivened his soul, that it gave 
him to taste and feel the dynamic-impetus of that torrent 
of Life, which Lamed had told him rendered a true Individual, 
at-one-with Omnipotent, Omniscient Omnipresence: filling him 
then, with the certainty that all the life that ever had been 
anywhere, was then there present. Therefore, present then 
and there was the life which was once embodied in form and 
features of him who had been known as Archibald Landseer. 

With an old self-poise, which like jetsam was heaved up 
with the treasures of the moral-development of his unburiable- 
past, this child of sanctity, catching step, as with a longer 
stride and tightening grasp as on a larger hand, strode out, 
as if walking and talking again with him who, in recent un- 
balanced days, had cavilled at and then, had reclutched Mrs. 
Landseer’s sight of the doings of that Omniscience, which, 
she claimed, filters down for the reception of those who are 
self-whole enough to receive, hold and not waste it, because 
of having been taught, when energized by it, to utilize it in 
a better way than in that sickly form of Wertherism ‘with 
its disabling moral lassitude, the only cure for which’ (so 
Tennyson is reported to have said) ‘is War.’ A proposed war- 
cure for immorality, which Landseer now seemed to be de- 
claring, achieved nothing but the dislodgement of millions 
from the body (as he had been dislodged), leaving these dis- 
lodged souls to await (as he was awaiting) the retaking up of 
their unfinished work, when and where in the course of time 
they best could find chance for re-embodiment : rending 
Frantze’s nerves with the fury of the poor man’s cry to know 
WHY he had been dislodged and why he had so foolhardily 
planned to have, decade on decade, hosts of other men thus 
dislodged by that warfare which, Landseer now seemed to 
be asserting, was in line with the lawless law of a not juris- 
prudential management: straining Frantze’s inmost fibres 


4 


Who Builds ? 


with cries against the blindness of not having lived on patiently 
while wisely aiding in the harmonizing of the lower forms of 
mere force by the power of that Intelligence, which makes for 
peace and purity. Then, as if deluged again in his old dream 
of attaining a world-wide public recognition and in his scorn 
of merely ‘perfecting duty on the spot one stands on,^ that 
tormented soul precipitated on Frantze, rehearsals of the two 
opposed ways in which a handful of humanity might be set 
up as world- wide leaders. Bedecking the possibilities of 
their prominence with a diablerie of phantasmagorial glory; 
and rehearsing the resultant divergences which he said ‘must 
be quieted;^ drowning the lad^s good sense in the man^s fury 
against restrictive agencies and fireirig him up to kill and 
burn all opposers : that thus there might be secured to 
dominants, a chance to so govern the rest, as to evolve a god- 
like race which was to be built up by assuming a fore-ordained 
right to so subject the rest of the world as, thereafter, would 
result in ‘the fathering^ by the dominants, of a progeny 
to whom still later the world and all womanhood w’ould 
belong. 

As if with closed doors, Landseer as of old, seemed to be 
now drowning the boy^s being in a smudge of pledged secrecy: 
flatteringly calling him, ‘ friend,' ‘counsellor' and ‘coadjutor,' 
throwing him into a psychic ferment: out of which death- 
dealing-daze he tore with the cry: “Cease Landseer. Get 
off the past! Live in the present. Leave me Now!" Re- 
garnering thus into himself the ‘life he had to live^: and rid- 
ding himself from subjection to the madness of the maddened. 

Into this shattered silence soft shod Tama walked with 
uplifted hand whispering, “You'se right. Honey! Stand 
firm!" Then, “She lies like one dead! No word! No tear! 
Jus' t'inking: t'inking! An' what ole Tama's gwoin' ter do 
wif yer all, de Lawd only knows." 

“But," said Frantze (gazing out over the intervale to the 
mountains while mastering the weird experiences through 
which he had passed, and gripping a new hold on the tangible 
existence which Tama's coming seemed, for him, to have 
re-substantiated) “He does know!" 

“Good Lawd! So He do!" said Tama. “But I had 'most 
los' my hold on de secret of de Lawd 'bout dis whole t'ing. 


Who Builds ? 


5 


What madame says, seems re^son^ble. But what she don^t 
say, seems mebbe, re^son^bler. An^ dat whole side am dar! 
An' what I want is ter git at it. Madame doesn't like dat 
letter 'bout — " She caught her breath, looking to see if the 
younger children were near. Then pulling Frantze out onto 
the little back porch, and shutting and holding the door, she 
added in a whisper, . 'bout not habbin' — habbin' — what's 
left of him brought home hyah-h! I t'ink she's a'feared dos 
secret sciety men knows suffin. An' she's afeared" — 

‘^Sho! Sho!" said Frantze, in Tama's lingo, ‘^We won't 
none ob us get at de secret ob the Lawd in that way. ^De 
secret ob de Lord is with them that fear Him.' That's about 
the last thing Landseer said to me when he was talking about 
the ‘Great Secret,' and holding me responsible for everything, 
in case he never came back," added Frantze, in a smothered 
tone. For the stately Tama had gathered his slight figure 
into her arms: and sitting on the settle with him rocked to 
and fro, pitifully conscious of his grand-poising of himself, 
just returned as she believed him to be from the border-land, 
a little more to the further side of which, she knew, was the 
limit-line. And saying as she cried and crooned over him : '^Dat's 
so I'se jes' gwoin' on ter fear der wrong pusson. I oughten't! 
'Cos I know well 'nuff dat 'merican scriptur: ‘I will not fear 
what man can do to me.' 'Cos Massa Landseer tole it ter 
me 'stead of Koran: when he said so po'ful-like, ^it's no way 
ter go tossing on der sea of circumstances when dey go, confus- 
in' round. 'Cause man mus' not let de changing circumstance 
ob dis yer passin' era shove him outen his proper 'lations 
ter his principles, but mus' either crowd back dose circum- 
stances or utilize dem. ' " 

Yes," said Frantze. All the time lately, he talked about 
that, when we walked together so fast. And I promised I 
would do one or the other! And all these two days I've been 
thinking about it. Landseer said I must remember it; because 
I was a natural coward; and might have no help in making 
my way. And that he was just such a coward himself about 
fighting anybody or anything. He said, you understand, 
that though he liked to have his way, he was a coward about 
going against people. You understand he said that himself!" 
repeated Frantze curiously; — releasing himself from Tama's 


6 


Who Builds ? 


arms, and standing off with hands on hips, as filling his lungs, 
gulping down a sob and looking through eyes which burned 
under what must not be tears, he said sharply; “Do you hear 
Tama? We are getting daunted! And I^andseer said we 
must not be ‘ daunted by circumstances, for however it may ap- 
pear j man is permanent, but circumstances are not/ And 
that we must either utilize circumstances or ignore them; 
and assume new ones, just as we would a new coat. And 
that^s what I^m going to do. Only I donT quite understand 
yet, whether our circumstances (these conditions standing 
round us here) can be utilized. Or whether there is” (he sank 
his voice a little from the incisive eagerness of tone) adding, 
something to he ignored? And whether, if there is some cir- 
cumstance to be ignored we should assume — or really 
whether we ought to assume — anything different from the 
truth as it is?” 

He held his head in his hand a minute under the intensity 
of his mental search ; then stepped out with an extended stride 
as if he again had hold on Landseer^s hand and together 
they were discussing these matters. For to his mind, Landseer 
seemed reiterating that a crisis like this, was like that in a 
game of chess, at the point when everything depended on the 
skill of the next move. 

Suddenly he shortened his long stride, opening his closed 
hand as if letting go of a bigger one exclaiming, 

“Landseer is not dead!” 

A sharply expelled breath sounded from the window above 
the little porch, and the sight of a vanishing face met Tama’s 
eyes. A look of understanding passed between her and Frantze, 
as he added, in tones which he meant should reach the 
chamber — 

“Tama, I wonder whether, perhaps, Landseer himself felt 
so permanent that, as he could not utilize circumstances, 
perhaps he ignored them, and instead decided to assume the 
circumstances which would stand round him if he — if he — 
got out of his body you know!” 

“O my great Lord!” cried Tama, upflinging herself, hands 
foremost toward the vaulted blue. “O my great Lord! 
What is de fac’ ob dis yer case? What did dat man go doin’ 
wif hisself dat day he los’ his courage, ’cause de battle ob dis 


Who Builds ? 


7 


life goes so hard? 0 Lord remember not Against him any 
fool-way ob doin\ ^Cause you yourself can jes^ ignore dat 
circumstance, an^ Tama an^ dis blessed chile will come right 
inter line, an^ assume whateber circumstance, dat one-minit 
fool-act, plunged us all inter, dat day when he los^ courage. 
Here, here Lord; I is your servant. Put it on ole Tama. 
I bow! I bow!^’ 

And, with the incalculable agility of the desert people, she 
flung herself down again, with swift genuflexions, abandoning 
herself to worshipful obedience. And the torrent which swept 
through her, carried Frantze and all who heard along as in 
the rhythmic Arabic of the Koran she adjured him — 

Landseer, Landseer! Thou knowest it is he who created 
you of clay and then decreed the term of your lives. And 
the preflxed term is written; yet you doubt thereof! He is 
God of heaven and earth. He knoweth what you have kept 
secret, and what you publish, and knoweth what you deserve. 
There came not unto you any sign of the signs of the Lord, 
but you have retired from the same. You have gain-said 
the truth after it has come to you. But a message shall come 
unto you concerning that which you have mocked at. You 
shall be convinced of the truth before which you faltered, 
when you shall see the punishment which you shall suffer 
for faltering, both in this world and in the next : — when you 
shall see the glorious success of that which you have aban- 
doned. For your generation shall be established on the earth 
in a manner wherein we have not established youJ^ This, in 
the Arabic of the Koran. Then in her broken English she 
pleaded — 

Lord of Heaven make him hear, and hearing make 
him understand that ancient word! And now, if there is a 
way to do it Lord, put Thy Power on this household : that we, 
every one may royally assume the circumstances which Land- 
seer has thrust upon us by cowardly rushing uncalled into the 
unseen realm.’! 

The silence and all that was in it held back breath while, 
with an insurgence indescribable she called three times on 
the name of Landseer; assuring him again that the Lord knew 
what he deserved for retiring from life’s battles ^ with no sign 
of the signs of the Lord, and for gainsaying the truth after 


8 


Who Builds ? 


it had come to him, and for doubting and faltering in the 
way/ And that, though he had helpers still, not one of them 
should be his servant; for he, not being his own master, hence- 
forth should master none. But waiting aside, he should be but 
a spectator of the work of those who now would bring jubilee 
to earth. Nor should he, by psychic intrusion, burden others 
with his Will and wishes, in the attempt to make them do for 
him what he had lacked courage to stay on the battle-field of 
life and do for himself. 

Cease Tama!'^ 

It came like a command from the chair at the open window 
above the little balcony. But it only doubled Tama’s sense 
of the dangers which a suicidal poltroon brings on family 
and community: causing her, with redoubled zeal to send 
‘the word’ to the disembodied soul whom she felt, earth- 
bound, was shivering near, instead of following up the search 
into other-world-knowledge which he had forced an entrance 
there, in order to make. And like one who had the care of a 
derelect, who had plunged into mysteries mid which he could 
not now get his bearings, sonorously bell-like, on tolled her 
voice : — 

“Landseer, you’se no more dead dan I is! So get you hoi 
ob de fac’l An’ clear away dese falsehoods ’bout Woman- 
nature dat poisons woman’s heart ’gainst her crucifiers an’ 
man’s heart ’gainst her! Tell de trufe dat you know is at de 
foundation ob universal harmony; as yer said yerself ter Tama 
once; supposin’ she wouldn’t know de rest ob it. Landseer, 
lest yer want ter be dragged down ter hell, — quit lies!” she 
shouted, falling prone to the floor, dead spent by the expul- 
sion of soul-force which her spirit’s reach-out toward him had 
caused her. 

At this original form of service to the dead, Geraldine and 
Ishtar, unseen, were present: listening in a sturdy, nature- 
faith that Landseer was as alive as ever though invisible. 
And Geraldine, whose affection for Mrs. Landseer was little 
realized by that brain-racked woman, felt a queer satisfac- 
tion in the fact, that the man, whose short-stays-at-home, 
“made trouble in the family,” had been given to know that 
although he was now discounted by death, as a family-factor, 
he yet was expected to make things right for the mother. 


Who Builds ? 


9 


Meanwhile, her keen soul was quickened by that last sul- 
phurous-ejaculation. 

About eight years before the opening of this story Frantze 
a waif on the world, had been brought to this family with 
a past, into which Landseer had gone a’prodding as he had 
tried to awaken the child^s memory of what had occurred 
before he had fallen into the fever that, on his coming among 
them, had still held him in its shattering embrace. 

There was much at stake concerning past affairs, the com- 
plications of which were intricate and almost unravelable. 

But later, the child’s antagonism against Landseer’s un- 
nerved impatience, had aroused in him a critical dissection 
of Landseer’s contradictory statements: as, for instance, 
when, irritated at his inability to fashion his life according 
to his schemes, he once had said, Man had a right to get 
out of his body, when he had had enough of it” — while yet 
at another time he had said “As a man by suicide, got out of 
nothing hut his body he by no means got rid of himself; 
and therefore, accomplished but little by the act. For on 
disembodiment, he had to take himself with him, the same as 
a traveller on disembarkment, finds he has taken with him 
what he is; and, therefore, on landing, meets with whatever 
his presence invites and incurs!” 

Therefore, though for the first two days of facing the news 
contained in the black-bordered letter, Frantze had tended 
to fancy that there was a sort of heroism in getting out of 
a body which is a bore to dress, feed and house: yet, ever, 
there had come to him the assurance that a self-forced-de- 
parture from the body was not consistent with Landseer’s 
general idea of a never-say-die-courage. 

The day after Tama had administered her adjurations, 
Frantze with drooping head, hardly able to support the 
insight and outlook which animated his brain cells, sat in- 
dolently pulling the cat’s ears through his fingers, while 
thinking of the scene that had preceded and precipitated 
Landseer’s departure for England. For then, in Frantze’s 
hearing he had said, as if covering a retreat : — 

“Amy, I am driven about by contending circumstances. 
You cannot imagine what I endure. Amy, even now, if you 


10 


Who Builds ? 


will sell this place I will wait till the business is transacted, 
and then we will go back to England and I will follow up 
the old Law-suit and place you as a conservator of a social 
order you love/' 

In surprise hardly controlled, she had answered ^'Who 
claims that I love any social order ever yet practicalized in 
all this disordered world? You know we came here to help 
practicalize this country's ideals. Archibald, what has come 
over you? Sell this house and travel? What, with babes 
who need home, shoes and food?" 

And with a malediction against ^the grind of keeping the 
pot boiling, which makes a slave of a married man and life 
a beastly treadmill not fit for a horse' ashamed of himself 
and of the social muddle which loads down existence with 
all round causes for discontent; he ejaculated: ^^You talk 
too much! you're getting old!" 

And facing all that this really meant of his untellable weari- 
ness of them all and of existence, she said mildly, ^^Old enough 
to kill, do you think? They ask that about calves!" 

And he, to turn a joke on the horror of the question said, 
^‘You were a calf to marry me!" Then, with trembling 
hands covering his eyes he ejaculated, ^^It is a confusing 
crisis ! " 

And she, with that slow seriousness of well-grounded-con- 
viction which is like sand in the eyes of one temperamented 
like Landseer, said, ^^It need not confuse us if we stick to 
the simple, rectifying Principle of Liberty to each and special 
privilege to none on which this country is foundationed ! 
So far, you have done good work for the people: and, except 
for your excessive legal and travelling expenditures (things 
which you had decided to drop) all might go well. You 
meant never to ask anything of this country but the privi- 
lege of serving it simply from our home-centre; as any quiet 
workman might do." 

Then had come an outburst from him, received with an 
arrest of her breath: as she now opened the way for him to 
do what he was longing to do, and what she now saw would 
best be done, in order that she might devote herself to her 
children, while giving him the liberty (as he called it) which 
he said was his necessity. Frantze had seen that it was with 


Who Builds ? 


11 


unspeakable sympathy for Landseer^s bursting nervousness 
that she answered : — 

‘^Landseer, we are parting! You are going out to help 
forward a scheme for bettering the whole world in the bulk. 
Then why not you be the man to state what all wise men 
know but secrete: that man^s need for peace-filled-energy 
can be met in a way harmless to woman and her children, 
if but men will leave woman to re-adjust social conditions as 
far as her gainment and retainment of her self-possession and 
home-proprietorship, will, unintrusively do it.’^ 

The lad had often heard them discuss the simple, scientific 
facts relative to the orderly evolution of what she called 
‘ race-functional-possibilities^ : which Mrs. Landseer consid- 
ered were co-natural to the well-born and well-bred who chose 
to utilize LIFE spiritizingly instead of dis (or ab-) using it 
insanely. Nevertheless, her words were met with a look 
which Archibald sent into her eyes: the sharpness of which 
struck (not into her soul but) on the Shield-of her Faith 
that he was not looking at her: and not even at Womanhood, 
per sc, but at a bringer to him of burdens: which, when he 
had married he had not reckoned on: and his relations to 
which he did not now half understand: and to the carrying 
of which he had no intention of settling his shoulders. 

These burdens, Frantze knew, were the children which, 
one after another, had appeared: ruining (as Landseer 
claimed) Mrs. LandseeFs health and beauty: spoiling his 
plans and making him of but secondary importance: strain- 
ing their modest competence into poverty: and turning his 
inspiriting wife into a sick-looking drudge, harder to endure 
than all the rest. 

At the time, Frantze had not thought Landseer meant un- 
kindness. He was but stating unpleasant facts, something 
of the brunt of which (coming on Frantze in those eight 
years) had not left him ignorant of the Cause, back of them. 
But he did not know (for he had seen little home-life outside 
of this house) that (as Lamed once had said) ^square shoul- 
dered men asked nothing better, than that the Mother of their 
children should give herself to the business of perfectly edu- 
cating the children whom she brings into existence.’ He 
noticed how critically Lamed had listened and waited at 


12 


Who Builds ? 


that crisis: dispassionately looking at the Father of her chil- 
dren as if glad that his swift fire was transfused through 
their being: but conscious that, its fury would likely make 
them soon tend to become as insanely tired of everything they 
had ever seen, heard or thought of, as Landseer, suddenly 
and frequently became, when he had his frenzies, to ^get away, 
anywhere, only to be gone\f These things Frantze had heard 
talked over often enough to understand the full meaning of 
that moment: and to see how, though her limbs suddenly 
failed her under Landseer^s maddened look of boredom, Mrs. 
Landseer yet, with the composure of self-control had sunken 
safely into a chair, instead of fainting on the floor. 

The tragedy of that moment never to him lost its signifi- 
cance. He realized (though he could not have voiced it) 
that Lamed^s clarity of thought which to her was a high 
corrective of irritation against Landseer^s lack of spiritual- 
illumination — simply irritated him; keeping him chronically 
angry at her acceptance of the fact that the self-evolution 
which he was running up and down the Earth to accomplish, 
would more finely have come to him if he could have staid at 
home in that ^quietness and peace in which there is strength.^ 

For Landseer it was enough now, that she was to know he 
stood there ready to start that minute, or to postpone it a 
week if she would sell the place for what she could get, and 
pull up and go with him. All he wanted, was a simple yes 
or no. 

But at her first word his next came hurtling forth as from 
a person harassed within an inch of life by The driving forces 
with which a Satan of Authority makes a pandemonium of 
a household that keeps that Satan in bondage.^ 

This, Mrs. Landseer comprehended and was not surprised. 
For she had long known that her relentless study of ^Life^s 
great concern’ (immortally apprehended from a scientific stand- 
point) rendered her far less pleasant to him than any amount 
of daily bickerings and quarrels made up with final conces- 
sions and emotional-pacifications, day after day, would have 
done. She knew she was not the kind of wife that would 
have been pleasantest, but also she knew, there were other 
questions to be considered. The point now was, she saw her 
efforts at mutuality were distinctly repugnant to him. He 


Who Builds ? 


13 


wanted her to know it. She did know it. And knowing it 
beyond a peradventure, she said, 

^^Here let the matter rest. But before we part I will tell 
you, nothing less deserves to be undermined than does the 
^Temple’ which Masons of old planned to build.'’ 

All the more reason I should fight for it," he said. 

^^Not by fighting but by working out each step of advance- 
ment, Masons upclimb!" she replied: awakening his response, 
that, for him freedom to breathe outside of conventionalities 
was a necessity. Then to squarely precipitate the crisis which 
they both knew had arrived, she said, ^^Do you find it hard 
Ho breathe' here?" — to which, he, seeing his way out of in- 
furiatingly burdensome-circumstances, fetching his eyes close 
to hers, sped into her face the ejaculation, ^^Yes." Which she 
met with a friendly grip of the hand, as true and kindly as 
her question and voice had been: — while she said: honestly 

believe it, Landseer. And I give you liberty to breathe 
elsewhere, (where you will) with no thought of me or my 
children." 

And he, chagrined at the tranquillity of this unheard of 
acquiescence, ejaculated ^^My Lord, Amy! Are you tired 
of ME?" fetching out her simple words, ^^As tired, Archi- 
bald, as you, for years have been of your burden!" And 
when he, panting between fury, amazement and the com- 
fort of relief at getting off so easily, had said — ^She could 
never understand him'; she had answered, “Better than that, 
Archibald: I comprehend you. And I comprehend my past- 
relations and my future 'possible- form of service to you. I 
still can be more serviceable than ever. But I can never be 
lovable, ^pleasant' or satisfactory! Because you want some- 
thing I have not to give; and which Home cannot supply. 
You want freedom from Home-Responsibilities. While 
I, on the reverse, want opportunity to fulfil my 'whole respon- 
sibility to my home ; which I cannot do while you are so mis- 
erably unsatisfied here. Therefore take your freedom! What- 
ever you do with it it is your business, not mine. But if you 
like, try to lay hold on the fact that, when the evil which 
men have done is summed up, the evil that is wrought by their 
distrust of woman's natural-intellige'nt goodness, will lead all 
the rest in its disastrous effect on the race." 


14 


Who Builds f 


And bowing courteously, she had left the room. 

Thinking of all this now, Frantze wondered what better the 
marble-white lady could have done, than thus to have given 
Landseer a chance to do what he chose while she gallantly 
settled her shoulders to carry alone the burdens which he 
hated to share. 

Well Frantze remembered the boyish alacrity with which, 
after a moment^s dead halt, Landseer stirring about and pick- 
ing up and bagging, some things and giving Tama some direc- 
tions, took his departure with the air of being glad to go: yet 
full of wrath that she could let him go so easily: glancing 
back at the door through which she had departed as if he 
knew she really meant to do her duty all right : but as if he 
did not believe he had her heart and cared little for duty done 
in that case. 

And the mighty significance of all these untellable things, 
had had hold on Frantze, when, as The Mountain looked 
on Marathon and Marathon looked on the sea,’ his soul had 
looked into Tama’s, and her’s had looked into — what? Had 
it been a seething maelstrom? Had it been a boundless 
chaos? Whatever it was, he had no fear of what Tama had 
seen: though indefinitely he thought she had seen a soul that 
had attained a wished-for invisibility and a partial release 
from time and place: and which so, had become (as Landseer 
had said he supposed he would become, on exit from bodily- 
form) a dweller in a realm on the mere threshold of which 
Frantze had indefinitely supposed himself to be standing. 

The power to develop the moralization of mental-processes 
which the philosophy of the Omnipotence of All-pervasive 
Life gives to the real possessor of that philosophy, is so far re- 
moved from the intellectual-stultification which comes from 
a religion based on Fear of the Unknown, that Frantze’s inher- 
itance of this power had already secured him in mental- 
processes which once for all certified him that a man need not 
be feared nor disrelished for having ventured to disembody 
himself however unadvised the act in itself, might be. But 
that such an one might need help from those (if any such there 
were) who might be spiritually able to help him without 


Who Builds ? 


15 


becoming swamped in difficulties and conditions which had 
been on the way to vampyrize them all in a like form of wick- 
edness. A form of wickedness, which Landseer, in his haughty 
sense of unimpregnable courage, had once called ^weaked- 
ness,^ when he had said, ffiowever it might be for inane 
deserters, that for warriors there was no reprieve in Lifers 
battle: because it was the business of every one to face cir- 
cumstances, comprehend their significance and utilize them, 
while resisting the attempt of any soul (in the body or out) at 
overmastery, surely until that soul, had proven his ability 
to fully master self.^ 

Thus, one of Landseer^s high assertions, like a boomerang, 
now served as a finishment of the case: and remained as the 
mental residuum which the seeth and bubble of the fire under 
these lives had left in the family pot au feu. 

The stultifying horror and the (shall it be said?) self-reproach 
with which Landseer^s act had whelmed the wife who had 
gathered courage so valiantly to give him the liberty he 
longed for, had in it an element of which only the Reader 
of hearts could balancingly have judged. An element con- 
cerning which Mrs. Landseer^s three-days’ ponderings, still left 
her unable to acquit or to condemn herself. 

But now, the stultifying horror and self-reproach which had 
blinded her intelligence, was swept away, as clouds are some- 
times swept away at the coming of a cold north wind. 

Invigorated by this cold-calm, with hands clasped beyond 
her pillowed head, she reviewed things through which she 
had lived with (not patient acceptance but) the sturdy- 
endurance of a strong soul, dealing with a companion whose 
untrained-mercurialism was just short of genius. And crit- 
icalizingly now she thus inspected it. 

He was her children’s father and the imparter to them of 
that part of his temperament. She also recognized that it was 
her sight of the equilibrium between necessity and liberty 
which had assisted her to ascend those heights of self-abnega- 
tion up which the demands of Archibald’s erratic nature had 
driven her. Because, before marriage he had promised her 
they would practically demonstrate the scientific unity of All- 
Creative-action, by utilizing its inspirations, instead of talking 
about the matter: and had induced her to purchase the 


16 


Who Builds ? 


^Master^s House’ as a fitted environment mid which, (as occa- 
sion rose) to administer their ideas to what he called ^the villag- 
ers.’ But his idea of Villagers’ and dower classes’ did not 
accord with the idea which ^self-sovereign citizens’ have of 
themselves nor of their relations to persons who assume too 
much patronage, however well meant. 

So, as it takes thirty, fifty or a hundred and fifty years 
(as this nation is learning) to practicalize graphic statements 
concerning personal-Liberty, it had come to pass that the 
attempted verifications of his illusive statement and plans, 
mid the well-known seeming hindrances of this bread and 
butter-world, had caused Landseer to often hie to pastures 
new and scenes more blithesome, away from Lamed’s cool 
insistence that of course, with patience, they could do what- 
ever they could plan. For her power to pull on, mid ill-health 
and discouragements untellable, was not only incomprehensi- 
ble, but an insupportable bore to him. 

The very poise of temperament, which had at first attracted 
him, now angered him as against an assumption of ability to 
see and do what must be done : — making him feel as if brought 
face to face with a foe: for as he could not arouse The peo- 
ple’s’ enthusiasm over his writings and illusive plans, he lost 
hope of their practicalization; and was bored by her relent- 
less courage and wished nothing better than that she, instead 
of obeying her own nature (and he told her so) should be- 
come submissive to his. 

Fifteen or more years she had had of this, in a foreign land 
to which she had come under peculiar disadvantages where 
friends or relatives she had none. 

Suddenly sitting bolt upright with luminous eyes looking 
through the air, she questioned. Had she now freedom to 
utilize characteristics out of which Archibald had tried to 
train her while accoutreing himself in them? Might Oh! 
would it be possible for the hope-enchanted Lamed Ariosto 
whom in maidenhood she had been, to now gather-up her 
personal-identity and be and help her daughters to be, as far 
as in them lay, — what she believed (and they might find) the 
World needed Womanhood to become? 

Lamed Ariosto-Rhoensteine was her name in that maiden- 
hood. Though Archibald had significantly reduced it to the 


Who Builds ? 17 

soubriquet ‘Amy^: ^Lamed^ being too much of a mouthful 
and too full of histrionic import, he had said. 

She repeated her name in full: then using with it the 
marital-addition as a descriptive: thus Lamed Ariosto-Rhoen- 
steine: Landseer . And at the sound of it, she saw’ herself 
as more than she had been before the time when, in girlhood 
she had met a crisis in life; and, leaving that incident, had 
crossed to this shore. 

For now she knew she had indisputably become a Seer of the 
way which had been indistinctly visible to her imagination's 
utmost stretch. A land of duties, dangers, insights and 
foresights of invisible things,' the ^greatness of the way’ 
of which, should she try to record it, would seem but as the 
mirage before a dreamer of dreams. 

She pulled toward her a little table on which lay a strongly- . 
bound and padlocked-diary. She opened it at a distinctly 
new section: then entering the full date she wrote in hand- 
some chirography, — Lamed Ariosto; Landseer," as under 
other circumstances, had she taken that degree, she might have 
written Lamed Ariosto; Doctor of Laws." 

She could not have explained to herself just why she did 
this, nor why such a consciousness of self -ownership, rest and 
reprieve flowed through her being when it was done. But 
she threw herself back on her pillows (did this woman who 
had passed far down into the valley of the shadow of death) 
and rested from her labors; wondering if perhaps now her 
^ works would follow' her? She rested. Oh what a rest. 
Only those who have felt it know the blessedness of that 
inexplicable Rest. So blissful it was that she wondered if it 
were a safe or right thing to feel so ^composed to unity.' 

For there had come to her a sense as of a separation (not 
away from anything or anybody but) unto her best self, her 
angel. Not for years, if ever, had she known such an experi- 
ence. She became conscious of an augmentation and enlarge- 
ment of power as if now by individual extension she might 
do by herself, all that should be (but never had been) done 
for her children and the world anear. 

As she rested there came to her a certitude that her hus- 
band had intrinsically valued her. But she turned away 
from the impression. It was far from intellectually-invigo- 


18 


Who Builds? 


rating. And, as if sharply addressing one who had entered 
the room, repeating Tama’s words she said dismissingly : 

‘‘For you, not being your own Master, thenceforth there- 
fore, shall wait aside, attentive to the workings of the Will 
of Universal Wisdom. Keeping in its currents: you will see 
victory arrive: you being but a spectator of the work of 
those who, by patient continuance in ‘well-doing’ bring jubi- 
lee to Earth. Thus be it with suicides and deserters of 
duty!” 

Was this dismissal necessary? Certain it is, suicidal-pas- 
sionists are among the ‘undead-dead,’ whose woeful will 
and wishes work misery in those who become victims of their 
obsession. And she had now her children to protect as well 
as herself. And her brain told her heart {and with her brain- 
power she now told Archibald) that he had chosen for him- 
self the theatrically-passionate death of a suicide: instead of 
the rational-life-of-husband-and-father with her and her chil- 
dren; which kind of a life with them and her she had offered 
him: and in which she would life-long have given him, health, 
right-reason, prosperity and length-of-days: including par- 
ticipation in the spiritually- royal reconstruction of a world- 
wide brotherhood of Spirit-empowered, Self-sovereigns! 

From all of which, she told him he had by suicide, for 
the present disbarred himself. 


Was it indeed, that by a patient continuance in well- 
doing until she saw the way to do better-than-well, she really 
had attained to that equilibrium betw’een necessity and lib- 
erty, which enables one to throw off emotional-weights ? Had 
she attained to the condition in which all requisite attention 
can be given to the real necessities of others, while right- 
eously withdrawing oneself from a too dominatingly-destructive 
Intruder ? 

There came to Lamed a supposition that Archibald had 
in part, chosen retirement from the world, out of his weari- 
ness of her and her duties ! Which duties were as irksome to 
him as they were full of promised triumph to her: allowing 
that she could have the right to a ‘ repose, ’ (or re-postulating) 
of all that she was or could make herself to become, on a level 


Who Builds ? 


19 


where she would henceforth be (could she sustain her equilib- 
rium there) invulnerable. 

She felt an assurance that this, her hopeful outlook, was in 
true order: and that the untellable mystery known to Archi- 
bald was but at-one with her own knowledge of her own 
powers: and that it was related to his mystery as the solution 
of a problem is related to the problem; and that his secrecy 
regarding his Masonic mystery would as little bear common 
discussion as, a moment before, that which had occurred, 
unsummoned and undismissed, would have borne discussion. 
Should she call that magical experience, an illumination, 
electrically arrived and mystically vanished? To most per- 
sons, that would mean nothing if she did so name it. Should 
she call it Hhe peace of God which passes understanding’? 
and which 'none but he who feels it knows’? She had so 
heard it called in hymnology by singers who perhaps knew 
it too. 

Questioning and pondering, she rose and walked about, 
looking at common things, half wonderingly and inspect ingly, 
as if she had come back to them from afar. Even taking 
up her thimble, and with one half of her brain, counting the 
indentatures worn by the pressure of her needles which had 
made many garments for many children as for years she had 
sewed and dumbly done duties which she had neither loved 
nor neglected: but heroically had done, as women of her 
calibre under dull dictation learn to do them: not with 
joy but perhaps with faithfulness; because of their innate 
sense of the dignified relation which their duty-doing bears 
to each successively pending crisis: and, their sense that by 
their duty-doing the world hangs sanely together, age on age. 
But looking at her thimble now, she told herself, a change 
had come. She need hear no more children, the sight, of 
which hored her husband. She needed no longer repress 
her words before the fragmentary but ostentatious learning 
which held itself up away from women, considered well enough 
in the place assigned them by man; but whose proud ways 
and wonderments, should there be staid. She drew a quick 
breath; for with something of self reproach and alarm she dis- 
covered she had regained her self in losing her husband! "Hus- 
band,” she then said aloud; "not husband! But an over- 


20 


Who Builds ? 


mastering*master who would not master himself — and who 
has now gone to his own place and has left me to find 
mine!” 

Had she gone mad? No, she had but recognized that she 
now had a chance to be natural and to do right as she under- 
stood it! Nothing worse, nothing more wicked filled her, 
than gladness that she had now a chance to be natural and 
to do right. And so, with arms thrown up over her head 
she felt again like the royal maid she had been when 
she had known no better than to sacrifice such maidenhood 
for — 

But she told herself (and tried to tell him) she would cease 
thinking on what had come and gone since maidenhood. 
It was enough now, that surges of health poured into her 
veins by the mere permissive agency of the knowledge that 
she now had a right to be herself: and had a right to do 
for her and Landseer^s children, all that now all alone, it was 
her duty to do: he having chosen to disembody and vanquish 
himself, as a factor or responsible-element in the family. She 
stated it definedly. Assuring him with the whole power of her 
mind, of his dissevered relations from affairs which he had so 
ruthlessly thrown off, for the purpose of exploring other 
worlds! 

And she said this, facing the fact (and expecting him to 
face it) that she knew, when she had left the room that day, 
she had said, in her heart, ^^Yes: take your liberty: and leave 
me mine. Range the spheres of the Universe, if you must; 
but leave me unhampered in the self-sovereign sphere of 

HOME.” 

And it was in the bitterness of regret for this dissevering 
thought that she had mourned for the days which had so 
nearly cost her her life: while Landseer had deluged her with 
the memory of what, possibly, the power of that thought- 
-flash might have impelled him to do. 

The power of thought? She knew it well. And if more 
care were needed in every case of the future, that was one 
matter. But now (she mentally told Landseer) not regrets 
for imaginary results of a noi-iyron^-thought, but quiet was 
needed for the Home of Lamed Ariosto Rhoensteine ; Landseer ; 
deliberately thus christening herself and her house as she 


Who Builds f 


21 


essayed to take up the duties which Landseer had chosen 
to throw off in order to take, what he liked better: namely, 
Liberty to range, not only the world but the Universe; 
if — if he had power. 

This Tama now knew was the conclusion of the matter: 
at least (as she forebodingly told herself) until the next over- 
whelming return of the passional-atmosphere of that suicidal- 
presence. 

And she declared 4t was time.^ For pantry, and store- 
house were empty: and visible resources they practically had 
none now sufficient for the growing needs of the family : owing, 
to the inroads so steadily made of late, on the funded prin- 
ciple of Lamed Ariosto Rhoensteine^s patrimony. 

So Tama said, — ‘^Boy, when folks ask you what we hear 
from Europe and Mr. Landseer an^ what we all does an’ says 
in dis house, an’ what dey can do ter help us, you jes’ say 
^nuffin, tanks’ and den come right ’way home where you 
belongs.” 

Then she gave Frantze a list of groceries to order from the 
store, adding, “Go right ’long now, an’ tell de grocery-man 
to charge it all, chile: tho’ de Lawd only knows where de 
money’s cornin’ from. Yis, you do jes’s I say, ’cause now ole 
Tama an’ de Lawd know all ’bout dis business. Tama don’t 
know much, but dere’s de Lawd, He knows all de res’. 
Fear nuffin chile, we is mighty rich still; yit I can’t at dis 
partickerly minit lay my han’ on de sum o’ money necessary 
ter pay dat store-bill, dat’s all. But what’s money compared 
wif de confidence dat we an’ de Lawd an’ everybody else 
bime by will be sure ter make eberyting all right wid each 
odder, full measure, pressed down an’ runnin’ ober? 

“ So Honey, don’t look shame-faced in dat way! Walk up jes’ 
like allers an’ say — ^ Sen’ dese groceries right up ter Madame 
Landseer’s house an’ charge ’em up ter Massa Landseer’s 
account.’ For min’ you, his ’counts wid dis earth ain’t closed 
up yit. Now do as I say, honey, an’ feel honerful ’bout it, 
’cause I tell you Massa Landseer will see der way ter fulfill his 
obligations somehow or ’noder.” 

She caught her breath, poor soul, feeling much as people 
with good common sense do feel, when under this afflatus 
(called of old, the Tull assurance of grace’) they lean on the 


22 


Who Builds ? 


promises in a way which seems like obtaining goods on false 
pretenses according to all well accepted worldly theories of 
meum et tu-um. Then she added, with a high and mighty 
assumption, ^^Some people trus^ de Lawd ter look after dere 
poverty an^ debts; an’ it’s my opinion dat de Lawd is like 
de Centurion: — he says ter dis man, do dis; an’ he doeth 
it. An’ to anoder, do dat; ’an’ ter Massa Landseer, ‘owe 
no man anyting,’ an’ he oweth it to no man; an’ I’se no idea 
dat Landseer will be gettin’ carelesser now, jest when he’s 
better fixed for fetchin’ help outer de sanctuary, dan eber 
he was befo’. An’ — an’ dat’s what I mean ter hab him un- 
derstan’ if he can heah talk^ 

The finish of this was like an explosive sent up to high 
heaven. For Tama herself did not know where piety might 
begin and honesty (common honesty) leave off, when hunger 
was near at hand and grocers almost as near: and when the 
pressure of this inimitaWe “assurance of grace” surging like 
a torrent through brain and being seemed ushering in heaven’s 
triumphant march over the earth. 

So at least Frantze thought as with a glance at her, he sped 
away and gave his message in a state bordering on moral 
delirium. 

The grocer in response said: — “Oh, it is Tama, is it, who 
says I am to charge this to Mr. Landseer? Well, what does 
Mrs. Landseer say about it?” 

“Thanks, nothing.” 

There was a little consultation, for there had a doubt sprung 
up as to whether Mr. Landseer had really died. They looked 
at Frantze. He was thinking that Landseer, who was (in 
his way) truth over all, would certainly fulfill his obligations 
to his family; and the thought gave his countenance such 
a fortified and altogether blessed expression, that the grocer 
felt suddenly convinced the law-suit had terminated well. 
For Tama’s sense of affluence (not the ‘penny to a p’und’ 
kind) put on all the grocer’s men the assurance that the Land- 
seers were intrinsically and permanently rich people; and 
set them musing on the conundrum which in other years, 
Landseer, with his pockets full of money had asked them: — 
“What is money but a token of general confidence that some- 
body who has put out promises will keep them all and make 


Who Builds ? 


23 


everything go right, while everybody continues exchanging 
services and commodities and values of all sorts with every- 
body else, all on the strength of those promises, which at 
last, become to be considered circulating medium,^ as we 
say of real National bank-notes 

Allusion was smilingly made to this well remembered conun- 
drum, which one man there said, Was as good as any of the 
financial conundrums just then extant at the Capitol/^ 

So the words: — ^‘Charge it all to Mr, Landseer^s account, 
awoke memories of the fact that Mr. Landseer when he went 
away had left them (collectively and individually) in debt 
to him for things which make life livable. For the house 
on the hill had been a centre of the mental affluence mid which 
Mr. Landseer at inflated moments had his being. 

With his head on his hand and his elbow resting on the 
counter, Frantze reviewed the company of men and women 
who used to come invited to look at pictures, statues and 
engravings of sacred art, illustrative of the intellectual design 
in life to which the Landseers wished to direct attention. 
For he was confident that there was a form of serviceable civil- 
ity in which everybody could and would make everything 
right with everybody else through an exchange of personal 
serviceableness, transacted on a credit system, based on the 
generous honesty of a contracting community; be that com- 
munity this nation, or the wide-world’s citizenship. 

But alas! The immediate needs of heavy hearts and hungry 
stomachs rendered intellectual faculties unresponsive to con- 
ditions which existed only in imagination’s debatable land. 

Frantze was thinking that nevertheless, something ought 
now to come of all these theories. And as his soul overflowed 
with memories the memories overflowing into the river of 
silence which filling the place attracted into the store passers 
by. 

The next moment every one seemed talking about ^Hhe 
other man” who first took up his abode at the Rock-ledge 
and astonished the natives by buying that whole stretch of 
land on which to raise, not potatoes they said, but the might 
of man. He camped out there and boarded himself, and 
drank at the spring; while giving the tramps he loved some- 
thing more practical than an average college education, win- 


24 


Who Builds ? 


tering and summering with them in a way that help0d them 
to know their own and each other^s intrinsic value. 

But one person said — “That man w^as only a common stone- 
cutter.^' Another disputed that; and said that he was a reg- 
ular sculptor, working his design into the native rock with 
chisel and hammer, from the picture in his brain. And that 
he trained sculptors and filled them with strange theories 
as they worked, according to the principle that to find out 
who a man is, it must be first known what he can work at. 
And the minister there, said, “that this man lived with and for 
the men, dividing his substance with them, and then gave them 
a send-off with wages which he paid to them for letting him 
benefit them." 

“Yes," continued the minister; “and when some fellows 
came up, who weren't good material for making a success as 
sculptors, he measured out the stretch of land necessary for 
a cellar and a sub-cellar and set them to cellar-making; teach- 
ing them more practical science about taking hold of a shovel 
so as to get the right leverage in the throw, than you would 
think could be in it. Then he gave them the secret of com- 
bining body, soul and spirit-power in the concentrated action 
of the moment, in a way that would fill a philosopher's sermon 
to tell. And it did fill many a good hour as he worked with 
them, alongside, himself doing in a marvellous way, all that he 
had said could be done. But there was a fellow there who 
was too shaky to make any sort of a throw; and as for con- 
centrating his three-fold nature, he wasn't in it, and didn't 
know a three-fold nature was in him. What he did know 
was in him was pots and pints of liquor and tobacco poison; 
and what he knew was pretty well out of him was all phys- 
ical force not to mention all spirit courage, except the dregs 
of it, which the spirit of alcohol gives. So Heem (for that's 
the name of the other man) laughed good naturedly at the 
poor wreck and showed him as plain as print the sort of dis- 
integration of nerve-fibre and of brain-constructing-substance 
that was going on in his make-up. And next he had a de- 
lirium-tremens subject up at the Rock-ledge with a shovel 
in his hand, as an object lesson, to show how he managed 
it. Then the fellow I am telling you about understood it 
pretty well. 


Who Builds ? 


25 


^^Heem was an absolutely perfect man! I mean it! An 
absolute beauty! There never was a thing sculptured in 
marble or painted in picture, so beautiful, except of course, 
woman. And what made him so lithe, graceful, mighty and 
self-poised and full of self-conquest was — well — never mind 
all that! I am telling you how he dealt with a fellow who 
was too far gone to swing a shovel. But seeing the story 
is about myself it is long enough if it stops here.^^ 

They all pressed around the minister, and he said, ‘‘Yes, 
Ihn the fellow, and Heem^s the man who saved me; for 
when I got myself enough together to fling a shovel of dirt 
as fast, as far and finely as Heem did it, without strain or 
falter, he called me ‘prime/ Then he let me cut stone with 
him for the cellar, while he told me what kind of stone-cutting 
they used to do in Egypt, and the size of the stones they 
lifted, and how they lifted them. Then the mysteries of 
the Temple of Solomon, which some of you know a thing 
or two about, came into the discussion and into my moral 
and physical construction. For he taught me how to quarry 
stone and how to fitly frame it together in upbuilding my 
manhood as well as in upbuilding a cellar out of the earth^s 
depths. There are mysteries in it.” 

A man gave the minister a peculiar grip of the hand which 
seemed somehow related to the story. Then the grocer 
said, — “Well, iFs a fact; this town has prospered and our best 
thought has prospered, just as ‘The master^s house’ has pros- 
pered.” 

Then Frantze saw, for some reason, their place was called 
the ‘Master’s house.’ Then he heard a man say: — “When 
Mr. Landseer came, he tried to do as much as Heem; but 
he didnH go down into the quarry. But he did his best with 
his learning, lectures and art illustrations. But there was 
real woman’s wit in Heem’s manner of doing these things! 
He didn’t use books much; he had it all in his own head, and 
just talked it out. He was a college!” 

“He was a wonder-man,” said the minister. “No doubt 
in my mind about that.” 

“I don’t care about Heem,” said the grocer. “Landseer 
was the man for me. He gave the town more trade, more 
taxes, more consequence and standing than a thousand 


26 Who Builds ? 

queers like that Heem down in the diggings could give in a 
century/’ 

Doubted/’ said the minister. 

^^Not by me/’ said the grocer. ^^Hegave a fellow an out- 
look at what a cultivation of brains in a person would result 
in; and added more style to the town than we are ever likely 
to get again, till this boy here shows what he is made of. I’m 
thinking we might charge up large credit to Mr. Landseer’s 
account in this town, and not fetch him or the family into 
the town’s debt for a while to come. I could, I know. Why 
I was a boor when I first used to try to understand him and 
Art, and the things of which he gave me a glimpse. I wish 
he were back. We could all give him more encouragement 
now, because we understand him better.” 

Then the grocer asked Frantze ‘^if Mrs. Landseer meant 
to keep the house,” adding, — ^^Tell Mrs. Landseer I know a 
man who’ll buy it at a reasonable price; or if she wants to 
raise money on it, will take a mortgage on it.” 

know another,” said some one else, with a merry look 
at the exuberant grocer. 

know a third,” said the minister, with the air of letting 
the grocer know competitors were in the field. 

^^Oh, the woods are full of them!” shouted a young fellow, 
choking with laughter at the grocer’s dead halt; adding, “I 
say, Mr. Ralston, don’t you be too previous for your own 
good.” 

And Frantze, confused and alarmed, hastened away home, 
quite overwhelmed in the gladsome volumes of back-history 
and floods of anticipation and kind memories which, delug- 
ing these men, seemed on the spot to have turned Mr. Land- 
seer into the creditor, and these others into a ready-to pay 
up set of debtors. But, the talk of buying the house or of 
mortgaging it, brought in an element which filled Frantze 
with an assertive force, that it was not to be done. Which 
assertion had its rise in something quite beyond any practi- 
cal knowledge he had as to the disastrous possibilities under 
which a mortgagee falls, when the mortgage-holder’s grip 
tightens upon an estate! With blood hurtling like a race 
horse through his brain, he sprang over the ground, knowing 
nothing but the fact that Landseer would never have that 


Who Builds ? 


27 


done if he were on the spot. For the House was more than 
a house; — even the unthinking men had called it ^the Mas- 
ters House.’ 

‘^Tama, tell me everything that can be known, so that I 
can think of the best that can be done,” said Frantze rushing 
in. ‘‘For they are all coming up to mortgage on this house!” 

“Sacra-a-a!” screeched Tama with an abhorrent noise in- 
tended to scare the devil. “Sacra-a-a! Sacra-a-a!” And 
when, with a whitened-face, Frantze had sprung back, think- 
ing the woman had now gone mad, she whispered, melodi- 
ously as ever, — “Dar, dar, chile! Don’t neber say dat word, 
nor tink dat word ’gin. It’s somfin’ ter do wid de debbil; 
an’ de debbils hab lots ter do wid it! Dis here, is De Mas- 
ter's house, an’ you’ll be a master han’ at keepin’ it up ter 
business somehow or odder; my ole bones tells me dat.” 

“Well, den your ole bones don’t know nuffin ’bout it, Tama. 
I guess he’s not a master hand nor a master anything else,” 
said Geraldine thrusting her head out of a queer little high-up 
closet which was set in the wall and which had recently at- 
tracted her attention somehow in relation to the scripture 
which had assured Tama that the secret of the most High 
is with them that feared the Lord. For the random in- 
terpretations which authoritative-ignorance sometimes gives 
to Holy Scriptures, are only about as delirious as those which 
filled the little girl’s head when she entered into this closet 
and shut the door, to listen to the secret of the Lord; 
which Tama declared was with them that feared the Lord. 
Geraldine by constitution and education objected to the fear 
of diny-hody; but in proportion as she fearlessly regarded 
everything and every-&odi/ so, an awesome reverence for 
Spirit of the Lord increased within her. She had heard 
Tama when she had said she was going on to fear the wrong 
person and that thenceforth, she would not fear what man 
could do unto her. And Geraldine had on the spot, em- 
braced that part of Tama’s creed. But there had been no 
consultation which Tama and Frantze had had, at which 
Geraldine had not been privily present shuddering, trem- 
bling and assisting as at the mystical triumphs of the commun- 
ion of saints, entered upon without let or hindrance of church 
or state. But heaven forefend that saint in church or state 


28 


Who Builds ? 


ever should get as wrathful as was now the rosy, handsome 
face peering out of the crack of the door of the high-up closet, 
as the little maid, cried out, in Tamars style, 

^^Sho! Your ole bones ain’t nuffin to go by! Frantze is 
not anybody! He isn’t a Landseer at all! I heard mother 
say, ^nobody really knows who he is.’ He’s nothin’ but an 
in’loper! I’m de oldes’ chile.” 

‘‘So you is,” said Tama, “but you is nuffin but a girl 
an’ girls ain’t no good in property cases.” 

“Well, I guess girls are prob’ly, just as good as boys!” 

“But there’s reg’lar laws in the airth,” said Tama solemnly. 

“0 you mean there are circumstances standin’ round. 
And you think I’ll stand back and make way for circum- 
stances! I’m circumstances and I’m going to utilize my- 
self. I’m the head of the family. I’ll minister the ’state; 
and Tama, I’m Master Landseer. You shan’t call him ‘mas- 
ter Frantze.’ He is not anything to do with anything! He’s 
an in’loper. He don’t belong here. I heard my Mother say 
so.” 

“Shame on you Missy Gel’dine, alius at doors an’ getting 
into spy places. Dat’s too low manners fer any chile.” 

“Spy-places are jus’ circumstances stan’ing round. And I 
make them make way for me to hear what I want ter know. 
Besides it’s yer own fau’t, Tama. I see you listening at Mama’s 
door yer own se’f,” and with a fling back of the little closet 
door, she shuffled herself forward to the edge and dropped as 
lightly as a kitten; and making a grimace at Frantze, ran away 
to perfect another plan of which she had just thought. 

Whatever shame she felt in listening, was heroically obliter- 
ated by her philosophy of the possible use of circumstances; 
and so, for the time, sustained her magnificently as she mut- 
tered to herself ‘ if Tama may listen to hear if mama be crying 
when mama don’t want her to know whether she is or not, 
then, I will find out my truths by asking, and by listening and 
everyway else, too ; so !’.! 


Who Builds? 


29 


CHAPTER II. 


‘'for there are set thrones of judgment.^! 

T he next day, for the first time, Geraldine appeared in the 
grocer^s store. With set mouth and chin drawn in and 
head a little to one side she stood like a beautiful wild 
thing brought to bay and ready for a fight. And then in a 
trumpet clear voice, she demanded “a barrel of flour sent up 
^mediately and charged to the man of the house, Geraldine 
Landseer.’^ 

“Why of course’’ said the old fashioned grocer, with muffled 
laughter. “And if I were you I’d go ahead and take over that 
property business! You could do it if you got about it. Or, 
if the law hinders you, you just make a new one. You have 
twice the pluck of the pretty, yellow haired boy. Which is 
the oldest, you or him?” 

With blacker eyes and redder cheeks, and tighter drawing 
in of neck and chin, — 

“I’m prob’bly just as old as I choose to be. This year I 
don’t choose to be much more than nine years old! How old 
are you?” said she, as on guard. 

“George! but you have a tongue!” said the man. 

“Well! You just dare to put asacra-a-a — mortgage on my 
house and my father will give you a good fright in the lonely 
hours of the night, — and — ” 

Frantze, panting with his search for her, had caught her by 
the hand ; revealing to her with his look of horror, that she was 
in the midst of a pack of boys and men, talking about home 
affairs; which, according to the Landseer perhaps, false code, 
was the most vulgar of doings. The minister who had come 
in, stopped near as she was saying to Frantze, “Well then: 
what business had Tama to ’scriminate ’gainst me for you?” 
Causing the minister to say “What queer children for people 


30 


Who Builds ? 


of consequence!’^ with his hand on his beard scrutinizing them, 
as he added, ^^The boy is much more like Mr. Landseer in 
build and manner” — and then referring at length to Mrs. Land- 
seer’s way of repelling help: and going into the affair with an 
interfering, perfunctory way, quite as if these children, now 
that the father was gone, were fit subjects for machine-run- 
mission work! — All of which, these self-poised, high headed 
children appreciating then tarried, to hear further about. For 
it had been said that ^such work as Heem had done, was 
needed in the town now.’ And then they heard that Heem 
had been in Keilhau, in Switzerland when Froebel was alive 
and there had learned his way of dealing with men quite as 
if they were but children. Then the minister said ^Ht was 
up at the place on the hill (now called ^ The Master^s house’) 
that Heem got together those discouraged men; and by his 
way of going into it, taught them to love work as God, the 
greatest of all workers, loves it! He helped a man to find 
himself: and therefore, to know himself as a ^wealth-creating 
energy.’ He helped us to find in Mother Nature, our own 
super-sensuous nature. Those were his words too. I’m told 
Mr. Landseer had met him somewhere over on the other side. 
Landseer said he was a master workman and had travelled 
in far countries and could speak the Master^s word.” Franze 
noticed, at this remark, a bright man came up, — and that he 
and the minister grasped hands cordially: speaking together: 
and that then the minister said: — 

^‘That’s what’s the case! So Landseer understood what the 
house meant, and he or Madame Landseer bought the place 
with its cellar and sub-cellar; and folks say, they meant to 
carry forward something quite tremendous in this new coun- 
try (as he always called America) which he ought to have 
known better than to have called it; if he had reckoned our 
American Aztec and Toltec civilizations. But as the Land- 
seers bought the house for such temple-uses and as it is Mrs. 
Landseer's now, with a clear title deed, it’s a pity for her not 
to sell it out and — ” 

^^Yes” said the grocer, ‘^and turn it into a university, and 
have men lecture; for it is too extensive and expensive for a 
common dwelling house. It wouldn’t be worth much to any 
one round here.” 


Who Builds ? 


31 


should hate to see it offered to you for $99,999.99 if 1 was 
wanting to buy it for $100,000/’ said the minister. 

^^0,” said the grocer not to be outdone; ^^if you wait a year 
you may be finding a way to get it with the encumbrances,” 
(nodding toward the children) without money and without 
price.” 

‘^There^s no particular wit in that speech”; said the minis- 
ter with a sharp look at the children who, with uplifted heads 
and blazing eyes were listening, alert. 

^^What did those hateful things all mean?” demanded 
Geraldine as Frantze, with red face and tears bursting forth, 
pulled the children (for Ishtar had come) along the road to 
the hedge-enclosed precinct of the dear, dear home. Then, 
unable to stand, he flung himself forward under the hedge, 
calling out: — Uncle Landseer you ought to be here! You 
ought to be here.” 

^^I’ll pay them for this” ejaculated Geraldine. ‘‘Hateful 
things! What did they mean?” 

“You know” sobbed Frantze, “it says over the stone-lintel 
of our house, ‘The workmen change, but the work goes on.’ 
Uncle Landseer ought to have staid on earth and have helped 
Auntie to continue the work, — and not, change!” cried Frantze, 
getting up suddenly as if under an impulsion unmanageable. 

“He isn’t your uncle,” cried Geraldine — glad to have some- 
thing definite to fight. “Any way, I’m the man of the family 
and have four times the plug of yellow-haired boys.” 

“What’s a plug?” 

“That is!” A blow square in the stomach seated Frantze 
in the dust, while Geraldine speeding off, reached the first high 
gate of the high walled grounds and locked it after her; leaving 
Frantze to come round to the entrance two acres away. 

This blow was but the last of those which had been falling 
upon him, as he heard those people talk. Besides, at the time 
he had had a sense that Mr. Landseer was near enough to him 
to hear whatever was said; and knew the agony with which 
this ‘hale-fellow! Well-met,’ style of talking over the Landseer 
affairs, had filled the tenacious soul of the now disembodied 
man, whom Frantze felt had immediately charged him never 
to let mortal know the last ‘preposterous words of the abomi- 
nable grocer, nor to let his own thoughts revert to them.’ And 


32 


Who Builds ? 


it had been the sense of this charge, which had swiftly decided 
him to now thrust aside that talk by telling Geraldine that 
though the workmen change, the work (whatever it was) 
must go on. And that they must all find a way to carry 
it forward, out of consideration for Landseer and justice to 
themselves and the rest of the world. But his plan of speech 
was overturned when Geraldine overturned him in the dust — 
not only of the highway, but of the humiliation in which she 
improved every opportunity for keeping him. 

For a vague sense of shame was in his mind connected with 
the mystery of his coming into that family, where Geraldine 
seemed so greatly to hate having him dwell. He loved Ger- 
aldine with an admiration mingled with excessive horror that 
she could endure to be so frightfully rude to people. 

^^What did she do dat forf^^ said Ishtar, — a square-chinned, 
substantially quiet child, born final and fundamental in her 
aspirations and search. And at that, Frantze flung himself 
down again and cried as if his heart would break. 

^^Sho, sho!^^ said Ishtar in Tama’s way. ^^You can’t mos’ 
always tell what will happen next. Come home!” 

Then he pulled himself together and when once within 
their gates where he could luxuriate in a cry if he chose, the 
tempest was spent. But he said, — There can’t much happen 
noways, ’cos we are so dreadful por!” 

“What is ^por?’” 

“Poor, Ishtar!” said Frantze. Then wishing to retract, 
he added, “O, nothing, only they think we live in a fine place, 
and we ought to be doing fine deeds for others.” 

Just then Tama came striding down to get Frantze’s version 
of Geraldine’s excited story of the affair at the grocer’s. The 
pith of which Frantze gave well enough for Tama to compre- 
hend it more fully than he, as yet could. And hurrying them 
up to the house she put the two older ones out on the little 
back porch: telling them to stay there and keep still and 
let her think. Then taking Ishtar in her arms she took off 
the worn dusty little shoes; and seated in her great rocking 
chair with the large-eyed, listening child, went on with 
thinking, talking and prospecting the matter over, whether 
in prayer to the Lord or in counselling Landseer to a keener 
sense of his duty here: or, in holding consultation with the 


Who Builds ? 


33 


little maid who listened, as from infancy she had listened 
to these outpourings — no one could have said. 

The windows were open: and Frantze and Geraldine were 
listening too, as, spent with the excitement and new experi- 
ences they sat still on the old fashioned settle. Frantze, full 
of pitiful yearning to get at the ^ whole of it.’ And Geraldine, 
watching him, conscious of the fact that he had not reported 
her doings and more conscious of his unfailing goodness to 
her, suddenly flung her arms around his neck kissing him 
passionately. When — 

“Ger-r-raldine!” sounded challengingly forth from the win- 
dow above: with a roll of the british r which sent Frantze 
to Tama as if the ^dead had moved.’ And Tama foolishly ex- 
claiming, “What’s the child done now?” seizing Geraldine, 
thrust her into the room, shutting and locking the door between 
kitchen and the porch, out on to which she took Ishtar: — 
telling them all to keep still. Which Geraldine contentedly 
did: as she rocked away in the large chair into which, Tama 
had ^plumped’ her: as close beside the open window as Mrs. 
Landseer was, beside the window above the porch. 

The splendors of the afternoon sun lay on the woods be- 
yond the intervale. The woodland murmurs filled Frantze’s 
senses as he sat thinking of Geraldine’s last attack on him. 
But his heart swelled with pity at the memory of the tone in 
which Geraldine’s name had been called out. 

“Did you hear how she said it?” he asked Tama; who, 
bending over him, answered: — “Fear nuffin Honey; ’member 
you is a boy. An’ boys have t’ings dere own way in dis worl’ ” 
she added with a strange accent : — then : — 

“Cheer up Honey! ’cause fore Massa Landseer went away 
he said, last t’ing, ^If I come back no mo’, an’ de great hopes 
fail, sartin’ shore Gel’dine mus’ be dat boy’s wife.’ So you 
hab no cause ter feel cut down! De light’s cornin’ on inter 
yer life jes’ as fas’ as yer can bear it. De trufe is as it is, an’ 
now I’se tole yer jes’ how ’tis.” And Tama left him filled with 
contending emotions, arising from his sense of the tortured-tone 
in her voice, Geraldine’s unprecedented caress and Mrs. Land- 
seer’s scorn of it, or of him or both, and Tama’s last words. 

Sequent on this revelation made by Tama, a self impor- 


34 


Who Builds ? 


tance, founded in a sense of proprietorship in Geraldine, 
grew up in Frantze. He felt an added personal dignity 
founded on the fact that Landseer had, by his last words, 
made him practically the head of the family. But that very 
afternoon, Geraldine was missing and was discovered by Frantze 
entering a church where a wedding ceremony was proceed- 
ing. When they came out, Frantze had a general impression 
of the music and of the shimmering dress of the voluminously 
draped fair, large woman as she stood with the little gentle- 
man at her side. But Geraldine with scarlet cheeks and angry 
eyes exclaimed: — 

^‘Did you hear what that minister said? He said woman 
was made out of man’s ribs! And he made that great woman 
promise to obey that little man, as the Lord! I heard him.” 

Did he” said Frantze eagerly. ‘‘Well, that’s right. Women 
must obey their husbands. That’s the law!” And with 
a new light in his eyes he stood looking at her. Then said 
importantly : — 

“I may as well tell you that — whether uncle Landseer is 
my uncle or not, I am now the man of the family. For about 
the last thing he said was, if he didn’t come back or get the 
property, certainly you must be my wife. Then you’ll have 
to vow that prayer to me, and — ” 

But he got no further; for she struck him across the mouth 
and was rods away, filling the air with shouts of derision. 

It was a very rough wooing, and a rougher refusal. But 
a terse revelation of the growths which were burgeoning forth 
in these children. 

The next day when Frantze told Tama “Geraldine ought 
to go to church and ‘learn religion,’” she wisely had him ex- 
plain why? — and then, hearing his jumbled account of the 
teachings which had so pleased him, she said — “Dat’s no 
sense.” And taking Ishtar and the boy, as if to escape the 
blundering world, went away with them into “the sanctuary 
not made with hands,” down by the brook whose silvery gurg- 
lings could be heard before they reached the rock-ledge. Be- 
low the rocks, the trickling drops took form in a sedgy stream; 
and just at the very heart of the forest’s silence they came 
upon a sleeping lakelet, full of the blossoms of white American 
water-lilies: “the glory” of which called a halt to steps. 


Who Builds ? 


35 


yes, to very breath. Tama’s head dropped upon her breast 
above her crossed hands. And as she did, so did the chil- 
dren, filled with the power of the silence of that golden-hearted 
wonder, whose circumference is purity and whose habitat 
is the limpid lakelet. 

Suddenly the majestic stillness was riven; for Geraldine 
swinging down from the rock-ledge had grabbed a lily, tumbled 
into the water and out again, splashing mud on them all, the 
lily included, awakening the echoes with passionate shrieks. 

hate lilies any way! Nasty things to grow in that filthy 
slime!” she cried, as Tama pulled off her shoes and mud- 
encased stockings, and shaking her up, ejaculated: 

Filthy slime! What you talkin’ ’bout? Dat’s mighty 
rich yairth! It make de lily-flor grow mighty fine. It’s life 
for lily-buds when yer lef’ it alone. Yer ain’t no claim ter go 
blasphemin’ down inter it, wif yer bad tempers spilin’ t’ings. 
O, Lord, Lord! Why ain’t massa Landseer here ter teach 
dese pore chillun? O my good Lawd, dere’s lots ob tings 
nobody ain’t teachin’ dose chillun’ what dey orter know! O, 
if massa Landseer was here ter talk holy trufes ter ye, Gel’ dine, 
den ye’d neber dare talk no scan’dlous talk — not about lilies — 
an’ de mystery ob lily-life Frantze — boy, — no how. 

^^I tell ye Gel’dine, yer pa lobed ebery inch ob dis groun’! 
Dat is mighty diggerfied ole mud roun’ here. It is made ob 
de fus’ fambly’s o’ ferns, ages long gone by. Dem ferns are 
de patricians ob nature. Dere’s heaps ob ancient fern-juice 
drawn up inter dat peaceful lily. Dat’s what makes it so calm 
an’ steady-goin’ like, — Gel’dine.” 

^^I don’t see no riches ’bout any of it; it’s just filthy slime 
sticking my stockings all up! You go right up to the house 
and get me some clean ones Tama.” 

^^No, yer don’t hab no clean ones. You’ll jes’ set on dat 
rock or walk bare-foot till dose shoes an’ stockin’s dries. You’re 
a nature-bad chile Gel’dine, ’cose you is. See dat lily all 
trampled in de mud an’ all dis noise made inter dis sanctuary 
ob de grea-at God! All in one minit you ransack inter de 
peace ob God’s growths, an’ tramp an’ ruin dat lily.” 

Ishtar was down on her knees with the crushed flower in 
her hand, looking from its muddy leaves to muddier Geral- 
dine. She touched the clinging mud, smelling it, examining it. 


36 


Who Builds ? 


lily-flors grow in filthy slime Tama?^’ she asked, wanting 
to side with Geraldine, who had often the evidence of the 
senses to uphold her. 

Didn’t I tell ye it warn’t filthy slime? Didn’t I tell yer 
’twas holy life for lily-buds? Ishtar Honey, dat flor ain’t 
’gun ter git itself tergeder dis yere young summer. Deed 
an’ deed no. It’s ages ole, an’ full ob de calm ob de great 
Jehovah. Massa Landseer knows all ’bout de lilies an’ rocks 
an’ mountains, an’ he knows a heap more now even dan he did 
when he was on this earth in plain sight,” said Tama, the 
shadows of the leaves flickering on her upturned, devout old 
face. ^^Yes chillun, dey is all like us, dese trees an’ tings. 
It seems like Honey, de woods an’ all dese pussons ’round heah 
knows jest ’bout eberything; an’ de Lawd he knows de rest. 
So de knowledge is all dere between em — ’ternal ages full 
ob it. An’ oh, my great Lawd, heah dese chillun am, put 
down in de midst ob tings, new as babes an’ iggronant; laws, 
how iggronant dey is!” 

^^Now see dat ole oak”; pointing, stocking in hand to the 
branches above them, and talking on while she stretched and 
tried to dry the now washed out garment. 

Meanwhile, the heat of the rock which served so well to dry 
the little shoes, stockings and skirt, sent the bare-footed child 
to stand on the cool ground. But she found that too full of 
briers for comfort; and that set her thinking about the shoes, 
while listening to Tama’s talk, as she continued: — 

“I tell you only de one who fust saw dis oak when it was 
a little acun, knows how ole ’tis. I wasn’t nowheres to men- 
tion in dose days, when prob’ly dis oak was talkin’ away ter 
der ole ole win’s jes’ as ’tis now.” 

^^Pho’,” said Geraldine. ^'It isn’t as old as our house. It 
took ages just to grow de stone ob our house; father said so.” 

What is, ^grow de stone ob our house’?” said Ishtar. 

‘'Come away chile, an’ I’ll show ye,” said Tama. 

“Tama, Tama, you’ve got to carry me! I can’t walk on 
my bare feet!” shouted Geraldine. 

“Dat’s yer own fau’t” said Tama, sturdily going on. Then 
Geraldine, with a pretense of sulking, threw herself down on 
the ground, till they were all out of sight ; then taking her long 
garters she dexterously tied about her feet the hats which the 


Who Builds ? 


37 


children had left on the rocks; and with much satisfaction 
in her plan was at length able to get around by another way, 
and climb the rock-ledge, where she lay peering over at the 
others with only her curly black head possibly to be seen. 

Tama was just then rehearsing as best she could, Land- 
seer’s story of nature’s limitless supply of those raw materials, 
which but need the addition of the intelligent services of men 
and women, in order that they may be transformed into every 
article of comfort and beauty, as well as into means of 
intellectual unfoldment of the individuality of the race. She 
was telling the way the house-builder had cut out of this ledge 
and forest, materials which, combined with skilled labor, now 
stood a house confessed. It was built into a permanency, 
protective of a higher and more invulnerable form of life — the 
human form of life. 

The faculties developed in her past incarnations had lodged 
Mr. Landseer’s thoughts in her mind. But her words failed 
her as she tried to tell these ideas; and in despair again, she 
swept the scene around and above her, crying mightily : — 

^‘0 my great Lawd! Here it all is jes’ as it otter be; rocks, 
trees, yirth, flo’rs, house, books, time, eberyting in plenty — 
an’ dese hungry chile-minds. But dere ain’t no Massa Land- 
seer here; an’ de mother ob dem is broke to de heart at de 
wrongs dat he cowardly done.” 

The wind-tossed trees through which her eyes were penetrat- 
ing, flung arms to and fro and up into the currents of the higher 
air as, if agonizing, they demanded that the secrets hid with 
them should be made known, and their speech be understood. 

The breeze which had turned into a strong summer- wind, 
now becoming tempestuous suddenly seemed to be blowing 
from all points at once; rocking the tree-tops as if to release 
the trunks from their rooted depths, that, coming forth, 
they might more alarmingly assert their will to be used. 

‘^See dem trees. See dem trees! Dey knows as well as I 
does dat dey has oder work to do for de chillun of man, dan 
ter stan’ much longer crushing back de oder young ones dat 
they keep from growin’. ’Cause dese is grown dere full size, 
an’ is strong an’ perfec’ to de heart; an’ wants now ter be 
made inter some new form, ter be used for de advance ob 
knowledge. 


38 


Who Builds? 


‘^See dem trees! Dey can tell dere own story, an' you chil- 
lun can hear it if yer listen to dat roarin' an' cryin' as, ravished 
wif delight wif all dat is, dey want ter get outen dis yere forest 
an' come an' be used in de fambly. Dey want ter use dem- 
selves. 

^‘Bress yer hearts chillun; trees don't no moah want ter 
stan' doin' nuffin wid demselves 'cept makin' more little trees, 
dan any sensible pusson wants ter! What trees want, when 
dey has come ter dere bestes' prime, an' when dey is 'bout 
as big as dey's eber gwine ter be — and der heart's sound an' 
de fibre is all full ob power an' virtue — what dey want den is," 
she stopped, and filling herself with the wisdom of heaven 
added, — ^Ho fin' a new sort o' use for demselves: by havin' 
some one assist dem up outen dere mere vegetation, through 
constructin' dem into anoder form of life good for new uses." 

‘‘Gerry is like dose trees," said Frantze after a great pause, 
in which his spirituelle countenance seemed illumined. “She 
tosses and breezes about like the trees, that want to be used 
for great things. They don't want to stand unoccupied there. 
One day I heard the minister call us ‘people of opportunity,"' 
he added; “and they are (some of them) saying the town 
grew, as the Master's house grew; but that town affairs are 
dead now that we took the place." 

“'Tain't either," said Geraldine poking her head up over the 
point of the rock. 

“I'm not dead since we took it," said Ishtar. 

“ 0 Honey, Honey ! I a'most wish we all was, we'se so p'or' ! " 
said Tama. 

“What is p'or?" 

“0 nuffin much, only we're no use to any body. Your 
father is dead," said Frantze downright. 

For Tama had given way and wept with cruel agony. And 
Geraldine pulling herself up over the rocks and shaking Tama 
exclaimed, — “I'm 'shamed of you Tama! Of course we can't 
be p'or when we own this house and these woods and plenty of 
books, and are the Landseer- Ariostos! We have a house to 
live in and we can eat- berries and acorns." 

“Yes, we is p'or!" said Tama faltering from her philosophy; 
“see dat chile's toes jes' outen her little shoes. An' I'm 
ashamed ter send fer anyting more on dat bill at dat store." 


Who Builds ? 


39 


‘^0, well she can have my shoes and I’ll wear hats/’ said 
Geraldine, exhibiting her foot-gear. 

Then of course a general gale of laughter ensued; and in 
scolding Geraldine and straightening up the hats, Tama for- 
got her distress. And with all Frantze’s talk about poverty 
it did not strike his mind that new hats would fail of coming to 
hand as often as wear and tear demanded. 

Geraldine’s next scheme for economy was to shut the gates, 
and keep everybody away and save everything up and then, 
to kill birds with stones and broil them with sticks and eat 
them with wild artichokes instead of potatoes. And we have 
lots of cats always growing in the stable; and Frantze can catch 
one, and we can make nice little shoes for Ishtar out of the skin,” 
she added triumphantly. 

‘‘Then can the cat wear my little red jacket to keep it warm?” 
said Ishtar, mindful of the comfort of the cat. “But what is, 
‘no use to nobody’?” she asked, puzzled over the combining 
of regret at being of no use to others with the scheme to shut 
the gates and keep every body away and save everything up 
for themselves. 

And when, the next day Geraldine rushed in, exclaiming 
tragically “Are they not liars who say the Landseers are poor?” 
and when Mrs. Landseer with whitened face said mercilessly, 
“we are beggars!” — and Geraldine looking round at the things 
of beauty on every side, and out over the fair slope of lawn 
and garden, exclaimed, — “What are beggars?” receiving for 
an answer, “Things like us, hiding away to starve. What 
are you going to do about it?” — then, the answer sank into 
Ishtar’s soul, as Geraldine said, “I shall do more, and make 
us all greater than the House-builder could.” 

And the silent, pondering Ishtar heard it all and would have 
remembered it, even if Lamed’s words had not been further 
emphasized: coming as they had out of a moment’s black- 
ness-of-despair, at the sight of the mountain-load of compli- 
cations with which man’s artijicial distrust, antagonism and 
consuming-desire for ownership^ had netted-up woman’s 
attempts (so thought Lamed at that crisis) to attain the best 
possible for self and family. So the dregs of the bitterness of 
her life-struggles (the least portion of which has yet been told) 
were in the moan with which she said, “You? You are only 


40 


Who Builds ? 


a girl. And unless you can no what I have only dreamed of 
doing, you must submit to the inhuman-distortion which is 
the lot of us — us all.^’ 

will kill myself first,” shouted Geraldine, bringing from 
Mrs. Landseer^s lips the opportune antidote, ^^You will never 
do such a low-lived act! You will be victor over adverse cir- 
cumstances. Why else were you born, I should like to know? 

Listen. The best anyone now in this house will deserve, 
if they do such a reprehensible act, is to be carried down to 
the town dump and thrown in with other rubbish. If you get 
that notion, go down and look into the town dump! I think 
there is a disreputable old dog there and a forlorn old cat.” 

With open mouths and eyes distended with thoughts of — who 
can tell what possibilities? about one — who had gone, whither? 
when to come back? — a’halt they stood: till Geraldine with 
a shriek of longing love, sprang toward Mrs. Landseer with 
arms outstretched: but to be staid by her palm-raised, restrain- 
ing hand: as in deathly pallor, she kept her consciousness 
of the presence and needs which (besides the presence and 
needs of these consuming children) must be also wisely dealt 
with by wife and mother. 

“Oh! You do not love me,” Geraldine whimpered with a 
sob : shrinking before the stern strained gaze. 

Then Lamed^s eyes had flashed (before her lips had uttered) 
the words, “Love you?” and Tama well understanding, 
snatched Geraldine to her heart, away from the sight of the 
soul-anguish; but not before it had brought out the wail 
“Ooooooo! She hates me! For what does she hate me 
so?” And Lamed steadying herself to deal with the needs 
made visible to her by the child^s distress, broke the moment's 
silence as came forth the prayer; “Oh Dear God! Save my 

girls from longing for Love where love is but ” a word, 

smothered in Tama's bosom; as she, with the cry “Lamed!” 
throwing off Geraldine fetched that other distracted head, 
all sick and wounded with the batterings of spiritual-misap- 
prehension, to rest where the child's had been. And Ger- 
aldine, more wild at the daring act of covering that mouth, than 
at being herself flung off so ruthlessly said, “Tame! Don't you 
dare to call my Mother, ^ Lamed'! Mother is Madame!” — 
tugging to get that dear head on her little shoulder, though, 


Who Builds? 


41 


repulsed by the apparently half-crazed sufferer, she sent 
forth again, that rending wail, ^^Oh! She does not love me:^' 
— wrenching Lamed’s soul with morgue-like horrors from 
which (can it be believed) she was as unwilling to fly as she 
was, to succumb to their dread power. 

The next instant with a mighty effort, uniting herself to save 
both the child and Landseer (who all his life with her, had as 
unreasonably sent forth that complaint) summoning her- 
self, (^having done all things, to stand^) she sprang to her feet 
and, throwing off the bands of death, in tones as deep as were 
her searchings and sufferings said, 

Geraldine! Grow not up longing for love! Give it if you 
have a sort worth giving: but ask none in return. Long only 
for, and use Wisdom. It is constructive. It is Permanent.’^ 

“And then will you love me?’^ came again the hunger-cry; 
fetching from Lamed a gesture of the hand which Ishtar, 
seizing, arrested, answering instead, “Yes! Then Lamed will 
love you’^ pulling Geraldine into her dancing step and keep- 
ing time to a melody that fashioning itself in her soul, came 
forth in the words, 

“Wisdom is permanent. Let^s come and construct it. Yes: 
come and construct that permanent good!^^ — singing it with a 
relish for the words ^ such as no flavor she had ever tasted had 
ever aroused. For the quality of Wisdom and of Perma- 
nence had rung forth in her mother^s adoring utterance of 
those words: as qualities of things anA ideals do ring forth — 
not only in voices on earth but — in the thoughts of those 
Spirits-supernal in the realms from whence they filter down- 
ward, as they come on their way to those who, on Earth love 
them. 

What gleam of Truth-subliminal was it, that, coming so, 
had welded together two sundered-principles : the clear cut 
distinctions between which, like the disfiguring scar of some 
old wound, had not yet healed in Lamed^s heroically duty-doing, 
but love-lacking life? 

All eyes were raised to hers when silence fell, as song and 
dance ended: and questions like these moved. deep in the soul 
of each and all, including Lamed^s own. 

Meanwhile until the coming of the black-bordered-letter 
Ishtar had lived with the hush of absorption on her. For 


42 


Who Builds ? 


till then, to this beryl-eyed maid, when the trees were gorgeous 
in Autumn glory it had been as if those golden hazes con- 
tinuously were there. And when the moon had gone bound- 
ing through ether, calling out lambent stars and setting them 
curuscating the frosty air, then the winter ^s white presence 
had seemed to be to her^ all of Life. But when the streams 
gurgling and flinging off winter^s bonds had leaped forth: 
and the smell of cowslips had been in the air as Spring sent out 
an aura titillating her responsive senses as with odorous hints 
from the garden of Paradise, then Spring to her had been the 
ultima thule. 

And when the lapsing months had brought again Summer^s 
full guerdon overwhelming her with the delights of Lily-time, 
then such days had absorbed all else into themselves. 

But since, into these idyllic states had come the black- 
bordered-letter bringing news of things unutterable and un- 
guessable, which had vaporized for her, all that had before 
seemed solid and real. 

Her state of subjectivity was now ended. She was awakened 
to a knowledge that there was a past : the works of which were 
to be reckoned with as a part of the now. And alert, her soul 
had arisen face to face with the Something before which her 
Mother had been almost ‘daunted^ (for Ishtar had not for- 
gotten the words of that critical time) and with which, Geral- 
dine, being a girl, ^ could not cope^; and under which, Frantze 
though a boy, had wept and Tama, Great Tama, had almost 
wished they were all dead. 

And now, though it was Lily-time, she had forgotten all 
else in pondering, as to what this thing was which had so fright- 
ened them all! Was it the thing Frantze had called ^so poT’? 
How did it look? Where did they use to keep it? What 
could it do to them? What could they do to it? 

On this invisible terror had she pondered a’halt and aghast : 
till now had come, that new song and the dance and hope, and 
the question which each eye had beheld in every other: but 
which none had spoken and none had answered, even in thought. 


Who Builds? 


43 


CHAPTER HI. 

JETSAM. 

H IDDENLY Frantze had always worn a jewel which link- 
ing him up with the unknown past, was to Geraldine a 
fascinating object. Especially as, referring to it, Tama had 
one day said with reverence, ^^He is Bapte,” as suggestive 
of environments whence friends would come, now that Land- 
seer had forsaken his family. For, in that light she always 
spoke of his attempted escape from home-duties : but with an 
inflection, which was far from prohibitory of his still bringing 
them that ^help outen the Sanctury’ on which the children 
knew, she still depended. 

However, the result of it all was, Geraldine regarded Frantze, 
the Future and the Jewel with suspicious alertness. 

Mid this state of things, one day Frantze came running out 
of breath to Tama, with two letters: one for Mrs. Landseer 
and one for himself. And Tama, taking Mrs. Landseer^s, 
seemed less surprised than anxious to get him off to the whis- 
pering-oak with the other one : saying hastily, 

“Bress de Lawd! An^ now run you off wif yours: and 
donT bring none of GeFdine’s fussin^ up here, for one or two 
hours: while I fix dis one wif Miss Amy.^’ 

He noticed Tama had had no doubt that the other was his: 
though it was addressed to ‘Frantze Anueland: care of Mrs. 
Landseer.' It had been the keenest discomfort of his ex- 
istence that he had not really known what his name was. 

He had gone by the name. Van Neulandt. But at the 
sight of the other on the letter, forgotten things of an indis- 
tinct past, sprung confusedly to mind: putting history at-one 
with an atmosphere of romance identifying him with his 
beloved story of Charlemagne the scholar-soldier and his 
wonderful Mother, and making his brightest aspirations to 


44 


Who Builds ? 


seem as but part of a half-remembered past now returning 
to the present, as a portion of that whole, which, he was sure, 
was his to have and to hold. 

Grasping Ishtar^s hand before breaking the seal he halted, 
silently looking into her great eyes: luxuriating in a pity for 
the boy whom he had been when, a few minutes before, he 
had not been sure of his name. With a staid solemnity and 
a newly imparted sense of his protective-power, he walked in 
accommodated-steps by little Ishtar^s side, to the shadow of 
the whispering-oak. There they were greeted by an owks cry, 
overhead: as from thence Geraldine came springing down, 
to read to him his letter. And he, with his mind fixed on his 
business of keeping ^Gekdine and her fussin' up there fer an 
hour or two^ gave her the letter, and threw himself down on 
the grass, partly in fatigue and partly in the delight of content- 
ment at knowing his name, and of no longer being possibly 
considered ‘an interloper.^ 

Geraldine, letter in hand, had forgotten to open it: arrested 
at the change which the serene abandonment of care had left 
on his handsome features, as now marble-white, face and brow 
shone forth in an emphasized perfection of refined calm. 

Then in the hush, she read, — 

Frantze Anueland, 

Years ago, and miles from here I stood your god-father. I 
have never forgotten my vow! But the point for you to 
consider now is — that, if you will test yourself by what I 
say, and apply my instruction to your life, you will prove 
your right to the jewel you wear, and to the name Somurai 
Adonai, 

Have you ever inquired why you were born into the world? 
Listen and know. It is that you may bring your being into 
harmony with Universal law. This should be the easier for 
you, from the fact that for years you have been in close com- 
munion with nature. Already in hours of restlessness and 
pain when impatience would have impelled you to blunder- 
ing haste, you have been led to read intelligently in Nature’s 
old scripture the story she there tells of orderly creation. You 
know that like the flowers and trees you too, are a creation 


* Partially sketched from a Masonic Letter to a Louveteau. 


Who Builds ? 


45 


of Jehovah; but with this difference. You have an outward 
form which is daily renewed (made-new) by your inward 
spirit! You live as you choose. Flowers and trees live as 
a simpler, immutable law impels them. 

During the eighty or one hundred years which you ought 
to live in this world, it is as necessary that your soul should 
be clothed upon by a body as that your body should be clothed 
with even more external garments. But remember, your 
soul (your united will and intelligence) is the real you while 
your body is but a responsive servant, ready to do your souFs 
bidding, whether those commands be royal or base born. 
And therefore, this body should never be disgraced by un- 
worthy commands, but should ever be called to minister to 
the highest needs of the Presence which commands from within. 
But let it not surprise you if you have temptations to things 
not of the highest. For know, it is only by constantly making 
a free and intelligent choice of the right, the true and beautiful 
(instead of the disordered, false and ugly,) that you can create 
yourself a thinking man; and thus avoid lapsing into a mere 
animal with the ‘mark of the beast in the forehead.^ 

‘To choose the way that is right and to pursue it with in- 
vincible resolution; to resist temptations from without and 
from within; to be fearless under menace and frowns and to 
unfalteringly rely on the providence of God — this is the insignia 
of true nobility.^ 

‘Neither renowned birth, name, wealth or fashion are es- 
sential to lady or gentleman. But true moral-stamina, frank- 
ness and consideration for others, with a cultivated intellect, 
fidelity and honor, these in themselves, are title deeds to roy- 
alty.' 

‘Next. — You can only be a student by resisting alluring 
pleasures and overcoming indolence. And it is expected of 
you that you will seek learning, not only to gratify ambition 
and for your own intellectual delights; but that you may be 
fitted to dignify and bless your family, society and the human 
race. Knowledge will also give you the power of amass- 
ing wealth which is of great use in the hands of the public 
spirited. 

‘Remember, out of work alone comes the blessings of life! 
Life's battle no craven spirit can conquer.' 


46 


Who Builds f 


Frantze Anueland you are a ward of the Free Masons. 
And as such, you are expected to have a profound interest in 
Government and public morality; and are expected to con- 
stantly educate the masses, and especially you are to teach 
them that work is a blessing, and idleness is a curse and is the 
parent of vice, disease and ruin to individual and country. 

As often as you look on the jewel you have worn so long, 
let it remind you of your duty, by doing which, you can alone 
deserve to wear it. The Delta is a symbol of tri-unity which 
is the symbol of that perfect human development in which 
intelligence presides over the will and inspires it to do what 
is wisest and most goodly. 

The wish of the best of our order is to purify the world and 
to disseminate the great Wisdom of the ages. 

And yet, this, my attempt to give you this report of our 
purpose may be in vain; because as these divine things are 
hidden in symbols to prevent their being profaned by the 
vulgar, so also the hidden glories that are in the gifts common 
to all living things are only unfolded to those who so live, as 
to hear daily the Master^s word, and who so work as to obtain 
Master^s wages. 

Child, there is as the Chinese tell, a ^Heaven and Earth 
League,’ into which only the initiate can enter. Some per- 
sons seem to be born with an initiation into the source of 
things! These are born seers and they readily assume the 
offices of the wise. But such seers are only found among 
persons whose inwrought-purity-of-?)emgr makes it possible for 
them to apply the intellect to wisdom in such a way as to 
obtain a sight of things unseen by the gross! Such beings 
take hold on life in such a way that, from the first they are 
invincible. 

Child, son of thy mother, — is that vigor of thought which 
seizes on the inheritance of the Ancients and enters into the 
‘Thian Ti Hwui’ (the Heaven and Earth League of the Chi- 
nese): and which reads symbols and keeps from those thou- 
sand low idolatries that drown souls in perdition — is this 
purity of soul and consequent vigor of thought, yours? Yours? 
or am I beating the air? Who can tell? It rests with you 
to answer with your life. If you will enter into those divine 
mysteries, you will make life a thing of bliss instead of pain. 


Who Builds ? 


47 


But you can do it only through the purification of thought 
and spirit from all stains of passion and selfish indulgence. 

Waste no time in thinking of me. Test yourself sharply 
by those high standards, in so far as you can catch a glimpse 
of their meaning. For know, thou ward of Jehovah, this 
Arcana opens up but before him who, by applying the will to 
wisdom, builds within himself, a 'White World.' 

I am your god-father, 

Jerome Konnygscrown." 

Geraldine's face had been a study as breathlessly she read 
this oracular communication. All the way through the read- 
ing she had had a consciousness of Bulwer's story of "Zanoni" 
which they had read and re-read until the weird part of it was 
identified with Geraldine's every day life ; founded and grounded 
as that was in Tama's philosophy and, super-ordinary psychic 
conditions. And now to Geraldine this letter, the letter-writer 
and Frantze were but dramatis personce of an on-coming drama, 
in which she was determined to appear in no sub-part. 

Fired fearsomly by this determination she turned taunt- 
ingly, on Frantze exclaiming, "Now then Mr. Glyndon what 
are you going to do with your miseries?" 

"Miseries?" said Frantze. "All I know is, I only wish I 
could be all which that letter describes. I think it is truth, 
and I think it is splendid!" 

"It is splendid and true! You are a god-child to the god- 
father! You can be it all!" said Ishtar in still adoration. 

Breaking the silence of the arrest, with abated breath, 
"Do you know what this is all like? I can tell you. This 
man is the awful Mejnour and you are poor Glyndon," said 
Geraldine, quoting from Bulwer's Zanoni. "You will have 
to learn 'unlawful knowledges' far-away from 'happy rol- 
lickers.' I see, all that is before you! Old Mejnour will fix 
you up awful in relation to the Spheres. Ha-ha? And 
all this has come of your old jewel that you are so proud of! 
Yes sir! And there's a charred spot out there back of you: 
I see it. It looks like The Black man had walked on it. And 
he does walk there nights when it sulphurs lightning into the 
air. Tama said something like that, any way.'i 

"Not quite!" said Frantze. 


48 


Who Builds ? 


Geraldine snuffed the air, haughtily remarking, ‘^She says 
lots of things to me that she wouldn’t say to a yellow-haired 
boy what ain’t got ‘plug’!” and like a flash she struck an atti- 
tude that usually quieted Frantze, partly in horror at the 
access of rowdyism which it pictured and partly, because of 
his miserable sense of being an interloper in the family. But 
now, to Geraldine’s amazement his laugh rang out full and 
free. For Frantze now knew his name, 

“0 may be that’s all fun” said she. “But I tell you old 
Mejnour will take you out and — and incant you. 

“I know he is one of the Eternal Brotherhood, for he says 
‘Arcana’ in his letter. You had prob’ly ‘a wise ancestor’ 
like Glyndon; this Mejnour-man has hunted you up for it. 
But you needn’t be so proud! You can’t go through with 
the horrors!” — 

And coming nearer with a frantic glaring of eyes she said, 
sepulchrally, — 

“The old ‘ Dweller-r-r-r of the threshold ’ will haunt you into 
fits ! And will say in a hear-r-rse voice, ‘ Keese me, my lover ! ’ ” 

He sprang back, but gritting her teeth and trembling with 
the horrors of it all, “O,” she said, “the Dweller-r-r-r looks 
charnel-houser than that! I could kill you with horrible- 
ness; and I am nothing but me. She? O, wait till you see 
her! I, just I, could if I chose, make you follow me about 
and bark like a dog.” 

“Quit that now,” said Frantze. 

“Here, don’t dare to go away!” she growled theatrically. 
“If you do, when the clock strikes a lonely ‘one,’ I’ll appear, 
and I’ll make the air full of larvae, coming nearer with malig- 
nant eyes! Look, like these.” 

“Stop, stop that. You’re a wicked thing! It’s bad enough 
to be a — Brotherhood, when I didn’t — ” 

“Ha-ha? But you have got to be. For didn’t the D. of 
the T. (we know what) I won’t speak the name — she might 
come if she heard my summons — say in a hear-r-se voice, — 
‘Thou hast entered the immeasurable regions.’ And he had; 
and the old ‘Dweller of the Threshold’ had got him. And 
she’s got you. Everything shows it. There’s no help; that 
is \mless, you want me to fix it all for you.’J 

“How could you?’! 


Who Builds f 


49 


could do what Glyndon didn’t know enough to do. 
He ought to have popped off that jar-cover and have let out 
some of the music-smelling essence; and have quaffed the 
‘volatile fluid’; and have bathed his temples in it. I’ve 
seen the volatile. They keep it in the beautiful green, red 
and blue jars in ’pothecary windows. I shall get some and 
turn it down her broad snake mouth. I have mesmering eyes 
myself. It was ’nounced of me by the psychologist when he 
picked me out for ‘speriments on the platform that time 
at the town hall.’ 

“Of course I did not go up with that ravel! But I have that 
kind of eyes just the same! And it’s a kind that’s good in case 
of Dweller-rs.” 

“Is all dis de trufe as ’tis?” said Ishtar tranquilly. 

“Deed an’ deed it is! They are saving him up because of 
something they are going to do of him, with ‘newts and fens 
and frogs.’ 0, I’m glad I’m not you!” said Geraldine hugging 
herself and rocking to and fro. 

“Then what do you want to change places with me for?” 

“O, change places with you! That’s not wanting to he you,” 
said Geraldine haughtily. “You are nothing but a boy.” 

That was turning the tables on him with a witness to it, 
and Frantze laughed merrily. Then he took out of his pocket 
a coarse burlesque on ‘taking degrees in Masonry,’ in which 
gridirons, spiked-barrels, boiling tar, death’s heads and rag- 
ing furnaces figured graphically. 

Geraldine adopted the whole as a fact, but suddenly fancy- 
ing the youth on the gridiron looked like Frantze, she faltered, — 

“Did, did the fellows say all this was true?” 

“True as guns,” said Frantze. “I won’t stand it, it’s enough 
to kill a fellow.” 

“But you’ll have to! Masons can’t be Masons without 
working the degrees said Geraldine; adding, — “But, but 
that must be 180 degrees fahrenheit on that gridiron; and 
they do have, certain-sure, to take all the ‘degrees’! But, 
— but I’ll tell you what makes it some easy. They elixir you 
up. They rarefy your atmosphere like Glyndon had to be 
done it to!” But her rosy cheeks had become colorless; and, 
too, this tumult of discordant ideas whelming Frantze’s vision 
of rational attainment bewildered him. 


50 


Who Builds? 


^^Read the beautiful letter that the god-father sent you, 
’cause de trufe is as it is/’ said the calm Ishtar. 

And Frantze, catching at Ishtar’s support, went all through 
the letter, reading it aloud, and so filling the words with his 
own intellectual certitude of his own future achievement 
that, thus vivified, the letter seemed so very different a thing 
that Geraldine went to snatch it from him. 

But Ishtar interposed; Your twelvth birthday-letter hasn’t 
yet come, — though it’s cornin’ Honey, jes’ as fas’ as you can 
bear it.” 

Geraldine quieted, halted expectantly. 

‘‘Am I a ward of Jehovah?” said Ishtar then. 

And Frantze curiously whispered, out of the lore Land- 
seer had taught him, — “You are, more than I am! You 
are Ishtar ^ the goddess of the month of Ulul.” 

“What’s Ulul?” 

“It is the Assyrian name of the month which covers that 
period of the year known to us as the last half of August and 
the first half of September.” 

“You sound like my father!” said Geraldine eagerly. 

“He said it to me, and I remember it; and it often seems 
as if he said things again in these days, Geraldine,” said Frantze 
speaking with the greatest simplicity of that psychic condi- 
tion which was as prenatally-natural to him, as it had been 
to the mother whom he could not in the least remember; 
unless one could properly say, he ‘remembered’ what was 
more accurately an occasional presence of something finer 
than a zephyr that fans, (not the cheek) but one’s inmost 
spirit. 

Then he said, — “Ulul is the month of the lilies of the an- 
nunciation, in this climate. And the sign in the zodiac of 
your birth-month is Virgo, the Virgin. You have no reason 
to ever fail of being a very substantially good girl Ishtar! 
Your father said it, and expects it of you.” 

“What is babdize?” said Ishtar composedly. 

“She means ‘baptize’” said Geraldine crossly; “like doing 
it with water.” 

“I know my water-lilies are ‘bapte’!” said Ishtar taking 
Tama’s word, and looking toward where these idyls of the 
Virgin goddess floated crisp and cool on the sparkling stream. 


Who Builds ? 


51 


“Well, I don’t care!” said Geraldine restlessly, returning 
to her certainty that Frantze had before him a Gabor’ and 
a discipleship worse than gridiron or tar-and-feathering 
would picture, if he really meant to rise to the great work of 
Somurai Adonai. “You’ll find, (whether that book is true 
or not) you’ll find you haven’t plug enough to get up into 
the ^Heaven and Earth League.’ I bet you that’s what the 
old Babel-builders were after. The sunday-school teacher 
talked about it one day; and I forget just how it was. But 
there were Shiners on the plains; so there must have been 
water there too. Like our brook where the little shiners 
swim about. Any way, just when they had gotten the tower 
built up, so that a little more, and they could have stepped 
right into heaven, along came some one, (prob’ly it was an 
angel I did’nt quite hear) and confused up their languages; 
and made them talk Dutch and English and American, — ” 

“More likely it was Hebrew, Scythian and Aztec,” said 
Frantze learnedly. 

“How do you know?” 

“I don’t know, neither do you.” 

“Well,” she halted, “you can tell your story afterwards. 
I’m going to tell mine now. It was some many-kinds-of-lan- 
guages any way. And all these languages were circum- 
stances; and they stood confusing round. And the people 
couldn’t understand each other. So when one man hollered 
'mortar-r-r’ the mortar man might have forgotten Eng- 
lish or Scythian, (you can fix the language) and prob’ly it 
sounded like the builder wanted more bricks. And prob’ly 
it made confusin’ circumstances to have too many bricks 
fetched up standin’ round and no mortar to stick them with. 
And there it was; — nobody knew what any body wanted! 
And they all talked different words, and thought each other 
was crazy. And they punched each other you know Frantze, 
and they went off and left the Shiners.” 

“The Shiners,” said Ishtar “were shining angels — in course.” 

“No they were not! They were little fishes. Any way 
I don’t know sure, I didn’t see for myself. I wasn’t living then; 
not on 'Shiner’s plain,’ any way.” 

“I am sure that was all that prevented your seeing,’! said 
Frantze. 


52 


Who Builds ? 


‘^Well, any way I know very well how we came to have a 
‘country 'tis of thee/ Natur’ly those who talked American 
just friended together; and left all the quarrelers and quar- 
reling and came right away over here peaceably in the May 
Flower, to flee persecution according to the dictates of their 
own conscience/^ She turned on Frantze with this orator- 
ical flourish, sure he could have nothing to offer after that. 
And with a howl of relish he rolled over, grabbing at the earth, 
in a perfect abandonment to the funny glories of the picture. 
For Landseer had drilled him in the brevities of American 
history; especially in the ‘Declaration of Independence,^ 
and in the Constitution of the United States of America 
as (to him) ‘a perfect instrument of documentary Liberty.' An 
instrument almost adored by that Englishman, Archibald 
Landseer. 

But Frantze had also been made quite as well acquainted 
with the burlesque performances of the old puritans, who 
persecuted others for undertaking to practice the liberty of 
conscience which the puritans preached. He did not enter into 
all this with Geraldine. And when he found his mirth hurt 
her, he told her, her story was a smart one and bridged the 
gulf of time splendidly. But that Babel-times were very 
very old, and did not hitch right on to the sailing of the May- 
Flower; though the May-Flower people's descendants, (George 
Washington and especially Jefferson and Jackson and the 
signers of the declaration) really did want to build a towe 
ing temple to Liberty. 

“Well, prob'ly that teacher made a mistake. And prob'ly 
that was the Signer^ s plain, not Shiner!" said Geraldine. “I 
just almost know it was ‘the Signer's plain.' Now I think of 
it, that was prob'ly where Jefferson lived and got an American 
start." 

Another shout of mirth. Then — “Well, I'll tell you what 
Gerry. You're right in this! They were just the same sort of 
up-and-a-climbing fellows any way. Only Gerry, that Babel 
business really is ancient Sunday-school kind of wisdom. 
Landseer as much as told me so." 

“Tama knows ancient wisdom," said Ishtar blissfully. 
“Tama's mother Maie teaches it to her in the night. Ishtar 
shall build a high house up to the moon and stars. Ishtar 


Who Builds f 


53 


shan’t be confusin’ tongues. Ishtar shall talk mother-Maie 
tongue, and not flee persecution. Ishtar shall have heaven- 
and earth legs, and go into the beautiful Ark-Canaan.” 

The peal of merriment sent a thrill through Ishtar. But 
her vision of the inmost truth, underlying all their bibles and 
babels was as good to her as anything yet offered. And with 
eyes very big and very dark, she looked from the merry- 
makers to the setting sun, and the rising moon and with a 
rapture-filled soul, she said in Tama’s style, — ‘‘Dere’s de ole, 
ole sun; and dere’s de ole, ole moon, an’ here’s ole Assyrian 
Ishtar! We didn’t none ob us ’gin ter git ourselves tergedder 
this young day!” and away she hurried homeward. 

But following Geraldine’s eyes, Frantze bounding to his 
feet, saw within that realm, a man! He had on a tourist’s 
suit and carried a fishing pole, and was near the lily stream. 
Whether he was after the ‘shiners’ of which Geraldine talked, 
or was one of the ‘signers’ dear to Frantze’s heart, or was 
one of Ishtar’s shiners-angelic, was a point of concern to them 
all. But to Geraldine it was more of a point that whoever 
he was, he was an intruder. For by inheritance and train- 
ing she was quick to detect and resent, intruders and intru- 
sion. And — 

“Get off my land” she whooped with all the power of her 
preternaturally heavy contralto voice; making the man look 
up and making Frantze clutch both girls by the hand and 
with them fly away homeward with might and main. 

And Geraldine, on the principle that “he who fights and 
runs away may live to fight another day,” flew forward till 
she reached the house-side of the last fence; and then, “as 
he who flies may fight again, which he can never do who’s 
slain,” she was able to mount that wall, and summoning the 
strength out of her very boots to howl, as against the echoes, 
— “Get off my land!” and then away she went to tell Tama 
that a man had come! 


54 


Who Builds i 


CHAPTER IV. 

* ‘Without Liberty there are few virtues. Despotism breeds pusilla- 
nimity and deepens the abyss of vice . — American declaration of indepen- 
dence: first uttered in 1766 in the province of Louisiana 

N ot by accident had the new comer allowed himself to oe 
seen by the river, when, under Tama’s advice he had availed 
himself of circumstances much as Geraldine would have done 
had she had a chance at the Tower of Babel. 

The reason Tama had seemed so little surprised at the com- 
ing of the letters was, she had at a previous interview, advised 
the writer of them to be at the Rock-ledge near the Whisper- 
ing Oak: so as there to become acquainted with the children’s 
minds. 

Walking back to his hotel Jerome questioned how far the 
fancies deployed by the children’s gibberish hinted at the 
average knowledge of the philosophy of religious-history : 
considering that the general lack of a real hold on spiritually- 
scientific-knowledge must be reckoned with as he took up 
the work for these children; with the possibility of which, his 
new glimpse of their mental grasp, prospectively delighted him. 

Entering, his hotel-room and throwing down his hat he 
drew up a chair and light-table to the evening fire; and swing- 
ing along his pen as if hard driven, wrote, saying: — 

'‘Dear AlKerri: 

I have found the ward, and have written to him and to 
Mrs. Landseer.” 

Then followed a recital of the afternoon’s experience. Then 
he went on with the letter. 

“That meteoric-flash of recurrent light, with his prophetic- 
oratorical flourishes and his Wife and her treasures of symbolic- 
Art and glorification of the American Ideal (as set forth in 
that country’s redoubtable independence of everything else) 


Who Builds ? 


55 


seem to have bourgeoned forth in three astonishing children : 
who appear impervious to the sentiment of surprise! For 
they are so baptized in Nature^s miracles that nothing but 
a more interior exhibition of the same miracle, carried on in 
their own spiritual-substance will set a level of achievement 
adequate to their alert aspirations and capacities. You may 
think this, an extreme statement, relative to children none 
of whom is much past twelve years. But I need not tell you, 
that the time has come when children are born old.’’ 

He halted: then; — find eight years ago, Frantze Aneu- 
land was brought here by a young German-brother of our 
order: under conditions, hereafter to be told. In speaking 
the name, he called it Van Neulandt: leaving it (possibly) 
doubtful, as to whom he was. Of all that, more hereafter. 
Things have been complicated: and there have been troubles 
here: as where have there not?” 

Pulling himself together for another start, he went on: — 

‘Ht is time I should show the world that persons might all 
be people of opportunity (as the pretty term goes here) if 
but they possessed land, and the knowledge of, and the full 
use of, their own faculties, broadly considered. And as just 
now my most direct responsibility is to my ward, (after the 
other duty of conveying the condolences of our order to the 
widow of our brother) I think I will stay in America for a 
bit: and — In fact I am curiously exhilarated, as if life had 
revealed some old roots which, revivified, would relate me 
and us all to things not buried or buriable. 

^^But probably every man in middle life has experienced 
the half shock of finding himself among the remains of people 
whom he used to know in youth (his own and theirs) and 
whom he finds look less like themselves than do the young 
troop about them, who press forward, challenging the earth 
and their elders, to give them standing room. Account for 
it as you will, Geraldine is the image of one who — but mad- 
ness lies that way.” 

You can guess the puzzle I am trying to solve. 

“But outside of this, I am fancying to myself the business 
of making these young people apply themselves to the highest 
ideals of our great order; and to the principle of universal 
Order as cherished by Hermetic Religions throughout the 


56 


Who Builds ? 


world. That is practically what Landseer had promised his 
wife he would open up the way to have done in America 
if she would marry him. But gossip says that things have not 
been nice. 

‘^All intelligent persons see the preposterousness of the 
fact, that while leaders among men desire to give men every 
advantage for developing will and intelligence, they go about 
the business in such a way that, in the end, males are left as 
dependent on woman, as woman is on God! 

^^The result is, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, take it 
all in all, women are the bother of our lives. For there is 
always a fear among us as to what a woman might do if she had 
a chance. And it is this fear that has caused men in church 
and state to make irrational laws, which however carefully 
they are instituted for woman^s subjection, have as yet, (in 
proportion to woman^s subjection to man), but resulted in 
making man the slave of his slaveys folly as woman in free- 
dom would never have enslaved him to her Wisdom! — How- 
ever — ? — We all remember how (about twenty years ago) the 
Ariosto-Rhoenstein burst out on us, one day, declaring men 
all deserved worse than they ever got from women, in pay- 
ment for their perfidious reversal of right relations. 

Those Rhoensteins were terrible women for truth-telling; 
and they got their pay for it at the hands of those who did 
not want the truth told. And they were many. It was like 
having judgment day let loose on us when, twice, this Rhoen- 
stein, speaking out of her tremendous silence, poured forth 
wrath at social infamies. She was a terror to me when she 
spoke, and an enchantment too, one strange time. The 
point she made was that man is mad at his slavery to woman, 
and that he will never be sane until, by releasing her from 
subjection to him, he finds his freedom in hers, 

are constantly having novels put out that exhibit, 
with sickening realism, the filthy froth which the flounderings 
of the old order in its death agony, flings to the surface. Every 
one seems to wonder how these disastrous conditions can be 
rectified. Some men say, that at best it is but a question 
of the consumption of woman by man, or man by woman. I 
should say, let woe-msm give way before Man ; only let us make 
quite sure which is the woE-man and which is the wse-man — ; 


Who Builds ? 


57 


whose woe is ended and whose worthiness is most fully 
evolved. 

^^Let him that readeth understand. 

^^She is here, the Ecce-Homo — who, strangely enougn mar- 
ried the 'Landseer beauty^ as our set called him, instead of 
me! Yes, me! who better far understood her grasp of mind! 
For she, this man-hater, this Rhoenstein, this Lamed Ariosto: — 
Landseer (as she now signs her name) declared to me years 
ago, that no slavery existed so debasing, and battle-breeding 
as is sex-slavery.^^ He stopped, and reading back, saw the 
confusion of ideas; but resumed, saying: — 

("There! I will not change what I have said, though it 
looks crazy ! But the Ecce-Homo part is a truth not concocted 
by me, and is by me only partially comprehended, even though 
I wrote it. The fact remains, so shall the writing.) 

"Her declaration was, that it is absolute folly for men to 
fancy there ever can be a world-wide-Brotherhood until all 
men devoutly make way for world-wide-woman^s resumption 
of the virginal motherhood prefigured and proclaimed as the 
miracle of that age in which it (perhaps) last occurred. She 
knew of the general attempt to mystify woman concerning 
the fact that she is, in every way, inherently the Man-builder, 
'the Master Mason,^ 'the Prince Adept of the Royal Secret,^ 
and the spiritual attainer of the rest of the degrees even 
to the thirty-third which is attained only by those who, 
spiritualized and Blessed, walk the earth! She told me as 
much, one day, 'in order to keep me out of bondage to 
general brutality,’ she said. She begged of me to teach the 
truth, that women, (if man would cease to violate the mother- 
potency and prerogative) would swiftly enable man to find in 
himself the image of he-va, and the 'Virgin-crown’ and the 
'Pearl of Sophia.’ 'But,’ said she, 'those lawless men who 
are marauding over society to-day, pacting together against 
woman’s self-sovereignty and against a rightful-mother- 
worship, will never by such means, find (nor will they de- 
velop) the 'Book of Life’ nor the image of 'Heva’ within 
themselves. 

"She bade me learn of the real bible and see the Truth that 
a licentious man is Cain: and is the incessant murderer of Abel: 
— the Bel-A which is the beautiful one who 'has attained.! 


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She said, instead of fighting over woman and with her, men 
should rather congratulate and love one another that God 
has revealed his mysteries so variously. And she said — 
that he who judges, contemns and condemns woman in a 
wicked way, is but an ‘oppressor in Babel^ — Abel or what- 
ever it was. 

“My head seems reeling as I recall the deluge of delight, 
yet dread and wrath which then filled me at her overwhelm- 
ing visions of the blessings which will come to man through 
woman^s pleasant redemption of him. And while I was half 
hating her for her assumptions, I (like the fool that I was) 
threw myself at her feet, begging her to teach me this better 
way, and be my own beloved wife. And she repulsed me with 
a stroke across the forehead for intruding my little self on 
universal matters of the final ‘New order of the new Age. ^ 
Then the other one, coming in, with a trill of her laughter 
at ‘the universal muddle’ snatched at Lamed bidding her 
realize that any man would rather be dead and condemned 
by having a woman prettily fool him, than to have bliss and 
honors-divine as a result of having her teach him. And my 
soul, I believe it is so! For then that other one, lovingly 
made fun of me; and so enchanted me that death and de- 
struction coming to me from her hands would have enchanted 
me too. Oh Lord! My soul shakes up my brain this minute 
as I think of it. For Lamed had metaphorically torn me to 
pieces merely because I fell headlong in love with her ideas 
and HER. And, simply because I wanted her to marry me 
and take spiritual possession of me and do, all the reconstruct- 
ing things, which she was saying women ought to do for men’s 
souls, she acted, as if I had insulted her: and raged like a 
lioness; declaring that she was not talking about persons, 
but about principles, and about what ‘womanhood so-called’ 
should do for manhood so-called. As if I could understand 
such illusive nonsense as that ! 

“Then the other one, in the sheerest human pity of me, (0 
my poor soul) put her arm around me and with her own little 
kerchief wiped away the scalding soul-sweat which that bad 
half hour had wrung out of my bewildered, love-deluged brain. 
And with her kiss on my eyes, pitying me, as an angel might 
she rebuked Lamed for ‘Supposing the hot stuff men carried 


Who Builds ? 


59 


for hearts could take hold of such bloodless-philosophies 
as delighted the Ariosto-kith-and kin! And what was I 
made of? She — I, — she gave me the very next week such 
heaven in our marital home as, (if she could have but put up 
with my furies and jealousy) might have left me happy till 
now. 

^‘Of course our marriage astonished every body, because 
we all thought it was Landseer whom my elect wife had cared 
for. And then, suddenly Lamed^s attempt to make Land- 
seer win the Free Masons to proclaim the truth to woman- 
hood resulted in his getting her to believe that if she would 
marry him he ^vould leave her to be her own mistress in every- 
thing and sole manager of her own property and that they, 
together, would get away to America and there build up a 
centre for a scientific social state in which the best of every- 
thing which Masons and the universal-religions throughout 
the world had to offer, should be formulated by her with him; 
and a new condition begin; as begin it naturally should, under 
that American Constitution, whose preamble in the 1766 Loui- 
siana-Republic and in the 1776 Massachusetts Bay colonies 
kept a ’stir all the 18th century world! He was carried away, 
just as I was, and came to me enlivened with the ‘Book’ and 
the thought of the ‘Indwelling Christ’ which is in the Holy 
Spirit’s temple, ‘which Temple ye are’ saith the apostle. 

“And what did my love, my laughing love, who talks so 
little? She, with much healing kindliness of presence, tears, 
smiles and the tenderness of silence-too-wise-for-utterance, 
explained what? Why that of course we were all poor dear 
fellows; and that no one knew of any cure for our troubles 
but the growth which comes with time. 

“But O, my shaking soul, why do I try on this day to look 
back on that delirious epoch? The Lord knows it was like 
a Pentecostal season! But the wrath of Lamed at the other 
one’s affirmation of the-impossibility-in-the-nature-of-man, 
that men should take women for teachers in these things, 
was in Lamed’s eyes that time when last I saw her. And 
she then uttered wrath against the kind one who was wise 
enough to always ‘answer man according to his folly,’ as she 
herself merrily boasted to me of doing. 

“And like a priestess with her acolyte, proud Lamed went 


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away with Landseer, scorning me for my honest, stupid, be- 
wildering and bewildered outcry for — what ? I did not know. 
I think now it was for all that her (to me uncomprehended) 
thought had to offer; as she spoke of 'better ways^ than the 
ways of the beast-rule which deluged society then and there, 
as it does now and here. 

"But I was a big, roistering looking animal, six feet high 
and rugged; while Landseer was a pretty boy to look at; and 
for the rest, was neither special saint nor sinner above others. 

"Possibly the saints, being taught by women, might catch 
bewildering results from the spiritual afflatus evolved from 
a misapprehended spiritual attraction; and might end in doing 
about as Landseer probably did. That is, instead of keeping at 
a pupiFs reverent distance, they might slay themselves by trying 
to steady the Ark wherein rested the Shikinah! Pity it is — 

"Ah, the vision is gone! My pen has stopped! My strange 
confessions such as they are, may stand. I hardly know what 
I have written. I shall copy these words from this letter, and 
in the future know perhaps what just now has revealed again 
these things concerning that delirious but pentecostal season. 

"My repugnance to Mrs. Landseer^s disrespect for me at 
the time of my too humble and too bewitched offer of myself 
to her, fills me with unpleasantness! I have not yet seen 
her. I am trembling like a leaf in a storm, but not with fear! 
My soul, — what does a man tremble like this for, when neither 
cannon nor crucifixion could so affright him to face them! 

"I dread ' woman ^ as I do the fiend! The mystery that 
she is, is still the unknown quantity in the social problem. 
For if you kill her, you canT find her; and if you let her live, 
she eludes you. Do what you may to take out of her all 
that hypnotism, slaughter and slavery might be supposed 
to take out of her, she yet dies alive and stays so! 
And she snaps her fingers back at you from the world where 
she reigns immortal, — while leaving you agape, looking after 
her, swear as you may.^^ 


He had kicked the light, frame table over onto the hearth 
where he had been writing in a fury, climaxed in rage. But 
he snatched up his papers and then stood with the wrath of 


Who Builds ? 


61 


his battling soul on his face; as next, he kicked the ink-bottle 
(which having tumbled, was gurgling its contents out on the 
hearth) into the fire; whither it bounded splutteringly through 
the fiames to a stopping spot where it still poured forth its 
black stream, boiling and sizzling even worse than it had done 
from pen to paper, when it was trying to meet Konnyngs- 
crown^s other demands on it. 

Something like this he thought of; and with a good aim, 
he shot his pen, javelin-like, into the bubbling of the mess, 
as the boiling ink lay in its burning bed of coals. 

Then he crossed the room and stood looking out of the 
window a while, with his hands in his pockets. Then, seating 
himself at an escritoire against the wall, he began writing 
again, several lines below where he had left off, quite coolly 
and with method: — 


'^The great hindrance to real educational advancement 
is, that men do not generally know that they are mere cases 
of arrested development. Nor that the archetypal man is 
as far above the average specimen as the average man is above 
a monkey. 

^‘Allierri, I want you to understand I am intending to tre- 
mendously emphasize this matter. And whatever is done to 
me for my acts, I shall avow the Archetypal Man in no un- 
certain terms, if my own limitations do not trip me up! 

mean to easily and naturally unchain in these children 
(though it seems pretty nearly done already) that Spirit of 
Liberty, which by nature, is full of peace and purity. For 
with that universally done, the Goddess-Power will then find 
itself in right relations with the constructive work of this elec- 
trifying new epoch. 

^^Now then! I propose to settle myself on this spot if I can 
get permission. I have not seen the lady of this home yet. 
But town gossip speaks of her as a grand lady; yet reports, 
that she never sees anybody or cares for anything outside of 
the house. That is not what I should have expected of a 
woman who had the pluck to surprise her set by marrying a 
man who was supposed to be another woman's lover, and by 
then, running away with him to save him. Or^ some of them 


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said, — she did it to separate herself and him from that ^Taran- 
tula dance of madness^ in which every one got bitten, and 
which ended by every one’s marrying the wrong one, and then 
generally abusing and losing their best friends in the con- 
fusion. Such a time never was, before or since. And all 
because of the ‘Tarantula’ who, God bless her, never meant 
to bite any one. 

“But madness lies that way. 

“I must be doing hard work; for work is my salvation. 
I should certainly be ready for it. For I flatter myself, forty 
years of life have fused my controlled passions into power. 
I am tired of waiting for Great Bodies to slowly move through 
their circumlocution-office-methods of getting ready to raise 
money to call meetings to select committees who shall cau- 
tiously begin to admit the fact that, we will never have a true 
Humanity till women are free to be their virginal-natured 
selves; they being judge of their own needs and nature. 

“Now you want to know what I would be at? Well, I 
want to sustain these children in the freedom they have had, 
instructing them from nature and ‘the Word’; teaching 
them the development of the least evolved half (whichever 
in each may be least evolved) of their dual beings. For 
that will result in the scientific moralization of each dual soul’s 
fair region. And this, in the end, would make self-sovereigns 
of all men, and give to each a crown above temporal renown. 
Thus, gods will walk the earth again! 

“This science of the moralization of the whole being was 
rightly once considered Education pure and simple, without 
which there was nothing for time or eternity. 

“I shall not expect to go into the matter far; only of course, 
if what I teach leads up to difficult questions, I shall answer 
them fully enough to open up before these children the con- 
ditions which must be established according to the new 
ORDER OP the new AGE. 

“I shall begin by stating Sir Francis Bacon’s fundamental 
principle. He said, — ‘In the moralization of the soul the 
Will must be procured to obey the Reason, not to invade it.^. 
Then when I have cause to think that this immovable degree 
of rational control is attained, I shall explain that the body, 
soul and spirit of such an one is then just ready for an intelli- 


Who Builds ? 


63 


gent self-adjustment to the rule op a higher order of 
life! — and that this self-adjustment is the opus magnum 
in which ‘a greater than I’ must give sedulously sustained 
instruction. 

‘‘A very irreligious ruling idea has for five hundred years 
robbed Jehovah^s name of the power of the mother there. 
And every device has been resorted to, in order to conceal 
from the populace that which, the wisest ecclesiastics have 
wanted Initiates to remember. This irreligious ruling idea 
has resulted in a consequent subjection of the Mother-Being 
to the not Mother-Power. And that has arrested the devel- 
opment of the unperfected class — that is, the male class, rawly 
considered. 

‘^Is it that we fear an unseemly uprising of the half of the 
race whom we have subjected to our ignorant claim upon 
them? Our past experience in the singular forgivingness of 
those who have borne our sorrows and have age-long been 
crucified for our sins, should encourage us to believe that our 
public recognition of their power-to-do-right, will not tend to 
make them do wrong. Nor will a public announcement of 
our need of their help cause them all at once to deal harshly 
with those whom they, by nature love to help. 

was energized wonderfully by my recent participation in 
the unique teachings given to these children by the grand 
Tama, whose Mother (some say) was brought to London from 
a temple in Africa sixty years ago, by one who thought that 
life with him would some how ( ?) christianize her. 

Certain rights and privileges inherent in the children of 
Masons have become dead letter with us. It would appear 
that not all Masons realize that their sons could and should 
early be received as baptized wards of the order, to become 
at the approach of puberty, Louveteaux. Thence to 
enter on a training which, (if any man in the order today is 
fitted to give it) would make it possible for the progeny of all 
such youths to become like that ^ Lion of the tribe of Judah,’ 
that mystical being born in Nazareth. 

^^To that end, without waiting to hunt up possible Masonic 
hindrances to it, I am going ahead in my own way, to help 
young Anueland to get the full benefit of the principles which, 
in his future powerful relations to the world’s work, he should 


64 


Who Builds ? 


diffuse through society. It is time our noblest ideals were 
practicalized. To do this we must call to our aid the intelli- 
gence of maternity. What is more, unless we promptly stand 
to this task, we will be back on the times when men were be- 
headed for speaking the word Liberty, or uttering the term 
Hhe rights of man.’ 

^^All veiling forms and ceremonies should have become to the 
insight of the womanhood of such a Republic as this, simply 
as that ^covering’ which Jehovah creates ^over all his glory.’ 
And surely, when India, Egypt, Phoenicia and the Islands of 
the Sea are giving forth the mysteries known to them, it would 
ill become the United States of America to accede to the efforts 
of domineering spirits who are seeking to annihilate National 
freedom by prefixing to the Constitution a clause which will in- 
clude compulsory religiousness, or a practical disbarment from 
citizenship. For this country to give in to a union of church 
and state, would be to give up that free thought, free speech, 
free press and free education which are sign and seal of self- 
sovereign citizenship. 

^^Oh well, and Oh well, what a letter is this. It is written in 
the touch and go fashion incident to the violence of that en- 
durance which must belong to the thinker in these days, who 
enters the evolutionary surges now precipitated on this country. 

Never have the class of builders among which we proudly 
find ourselves, been retarders of progress. Let us then, acting 
up to the call of this age, announce that man cannot be self- 
sovereign as long as the bar-sinister of a spiritually-hampered 
motherhood mars his escutcheon. 

I am, fraternally, 

Jerome Konnyngscrown. 

^T.S. I hear nothing of the other child except uncertain 
reports of her death. J. Kv-’ 


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65 


CHAPTER V. 

Wisdom is Liberty and Liberty is Wisdom. Each with the other must 
abide, 

For to be truly free, as God would have you be. Wisdom and Will must 
co-incide. 

you is ward,’ a chile ob Ishtar”: Tama was say- 
A ing to the little namesake of that September goddess, as 
out on an upper balcony that overlooked a moonlighted scene, 
she rocked the child in her arms, while Jerome’s letter was 
speeding to Allierri. Then in rhythmic monotones she told the 
story of the soul’s ecstacy in that union with Divine Nature; 
which lifts it into kinship with influences which Tama wisely 
and briefly named, ‘God’: whose empowering invulnerability 
rushing then to multiform benefits, thrilled her as she said 
again, “Yes, you is a ward oh Jehobah. Dat’s de same ting! 
Dat life am yours, an’ de touch am light as de air dat lif’s de 
chile’s curls. But it’s firm, mighty firm, see? Dat air am 
so light an’ sof’ dat you almost ferget it’s dar! But ’tis dar, 
an yer breave it in an’ lib in it, an’ it’s yer very bein’. ’Tis 
yer substance. For de substance ob de Mighty One is divided 
out ter yer; an’ all dat yer are, am part an’ parcel ob de Great 
Spirit. De trufe is at t’is chile; an’ yer mus’ go on ter fin’ de 
myst’ries ob grace an’ glory fer yer ownself. Folkses can’t 
tell yer much; fer it comes powerful like t’ru de air an’ com- 
mon tings when yer a’watchin’ an’ a’waitin’ fer der Bride- 
groom ob de soul.” 

“What are heben an’ earth legs Tama?” queried Ishtar 
next. 

“Dem legs Honey,” said Tama with deliberation, “dem, 
mus’ be de mighty high steppin’ ob de soul inter dat knowledge 
dat de Grea-a-t Spirit hoi’s temptin’ like far above your iggro- 
nance. Now dem stars, yer don’t know much ’bout dem stars. 


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Yer hab ter hab Heaven an^ Earth legs ter git all dey is tryin’ 
ter ^lighten yer ^cernin^ de majesty ob de Great Jehobah! Dat's 
a mighty fine ’spression, de 'Heaven an’ Earth legs/ am. Dat’s 
like enuf, as much as ter say, de powers dat angels stride roun’ 
on, t’rough de myster’ous tings ob ’ternity.” 

"So dey are,” said Ishtar taking a glance at her little limbs. 

"O don’t fret ober dese little legs. You’se bigger inside 
already dan you is outside.” 

"0 so I am,” said Ishtar; and with the white moon-beams 
about her, and white angels illumining her thoughts with light, 
Isthar fell asleep. 

What engaging charm, what nameless presence was it that 
environed her, interpreting harmoniously all words, ways and 
wants; interposing itself between ears attuned to heaven’s 
order and the cries of lo here! lo there! which distract and 
pervert those who are less further ascended. 

Some question like this was in Jerome’s mind in relation to 
that child as he mailed his letter. He now was determined to 
wait the answer to his proposal that Masons and all learned 
women and men should combine promptly to arouse all women 
to an understanding of themselves; and to a prompt assumption 
of their inherent^ mentally-maternal relation to all men in order 
that, with this comprehension they should release in men those 
higher faculties which can be released only in proportion as 
men are better born and better bred by self-sovereign 
mothers of the race. 


Meanwhile Ishtar was keeping Frantze up to the certainty 
that "work was honorable and idleness a disgrace.” So the 
next morning he began raking up the paths and chopping for 
Tama, the fallen timber which he fetched up from the forest. 

But soon his zeal failed him, and then one morning he heard 
the hatchet going, and heard Ishtar saying: — "It is not like 
beggars! It is true nobility to choose the way that is right 
and to pursue it with invincible — not to give it up! Idle- 
ness is a turse,” she said with a hard blow at the stick, which 
flew up, hitting her on the forehead. 

"Now what do you think of Labor?” said Geraldine. 

"It’s a blessing if sticks do fly/’ said Ishtar: and while 


Who Builds ? 


67 


Tama was binding up the bruise, Geraldine, very doubtful, 
sprung up onto her ‘ savin-tree-bough,^ as she more meta- 
phorically ^^got on her high horse and rode away on a pros- 
pecting jaunt to realms of dreamland, where she found relief 
of mind in picturing forth the future. Frantze, in the same 
spirit, got out his journal book with the letter in it, and set 
about reforming his life very fast he supposed, as he flung him- 
self down on the lawn, his face to the earth, half reading to 
Ishtar and half repeating the letter which he was committ- 
ing to memory, while rhetorically inserting explanations. 

^^Ishtar,^^ he said, reflecting on Landseer’s recent act, ‘^you 
have to have a body for your soul to act through, while you 
are on this earth you know! But your soul is you! Your soul 
can tell your body to do base-born commands, or royal. See 
me! My soul can tell my hands to pull up moss or write 
in my journal or — ” 

— to chop wood for Tama”; put in Ishtar. ^'She ^clar’s to 
goodness she has enough to do without choppin’.” 

am getting ready for Mr. Konnyngscrown. My life will 
be different from this, soon,” said Frantze. ‘‘Besides, your 
hands don’t have to do anything your own soul, don’t tell them 
to do? So you, not your hands are to blame.‘’ 

“It wasn’t Tama’s fio’r.” 

“What wasn’t?” 

She held up what she had had in her hand. And Frantze, 
glad to let go the wood-cutting subject, began a search into 
this case; at which Ishtar assisted, by remarking, contritely, 
“Tama said, don’t pick dat fio’r Honey, ’cause it’s pretty 
ter grow ’side de do’. But I tol’ my ban’s to pick dat fl’or: 
an’ now pore Tama can’t see it, while she’s washin’ de dishes. 
An’ de fl’or is dead. Trufe is as it is Honey. I’m ter blame. 
I made my poor hands do de ‘base-born deed!’ I’m spoilin’ 
my Heaven and Earth legs.” And she flung herself to the 
earth in dismay too deep for words. 

Frantze felt ashamed before her. But the tendency to 
improve the text was strong. And he said, — “I will pin the 
flower into my journal and write under it, ‘Ishtar Landseer’s 
flower which she made her hands pick away from poor Tama, 
who couldn’t see any others very well; while Ishtar, aged 
seven years, had the woods full of them!’” 


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'‘Put it in! I shall never pick other people^s flowers away 
from them any more/^ said she in utterance low and slow. 

"I shall write in that vow too” he said scribbling away. 

"Who are vows?” 

"A vow is an it, not who. A vow is a live promise that you 
can never break. It would be the awfullest thing in the world 
for a girl to break a promise.” 

Ishtar faced the solemn moment, saying, "Put it in Honey. 
The trufe is as it is.” And he wrote it oppressed by her gravity. 
Was it that he felt, one day he would have to take the conse- 
quences of his clerical assumptions? 

He halted. "But you must not fear yourself little dear,” 
he said, distressed at her pallor and something else undeflned. 
"Your passions and appetites must be controlled and made 
a source of blessing to you.” 

"That’s the god-father’s letter. What are passions and 
appertypes?” 

"Well, you know it was a passion and appetite to 
take Tama’s only — O, don’t cry; for that would be weak- 
ness.” 

With a gulp, down went the sob; and the tightly squeezed 
eyelids ought to have shut in the tear, — ^but — 

"Look at that! They did tear, though I told them not 
to,” she said, and her alert intellectual inspection of the proof 
of her own sorrow, and her eye’s lack of obedience to her com- 
mand, argued pretty well for the conquest her head would 
sustain over her heart in the time so fast on-coming. 

"But they are dry and bright as diamonds now. Besides 
there would be no merit in overcoming selflshness if choos- 
ing the right did not make 'invincible resolution’ spring up 
in you.” 

"You’ll be invincible when Geraldine tempts you it is vulgar 
to labor, won’t you?” 

"Of course we must be 'calm amid the sorrows of life’; and 
unfalteringly rely on the Providence of God.” 

"What is Providence? Can’t we go right ahead and flx 
things all right ourselves?” she said sharply, repelled by 
Frantze’s condition as he stretched himself at length on the 
luxuriant moss, while Tama’s hatchet sounded again. 

"It’s a great mystery, and marriage is a great mystery; 


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69 


and man is the head of the church/^ he said, getting very 
preachy and very mixed. 

‘^But what are Providences?^’ she persisted, tartly scru- 
tinizing his airs. 

‘^Well, providences are those things which happen right 
along, if men wait and women obey!” 

Punch him!” said Geraldine close upon them. Which 
fetched Frantze to his feet, quite done with his waiting busi- 
ness. For if things that ^happen right along’ are providential, 
then Geraldine’s interpositions might be classed at that dig- 
nified level. She had heard his lazy preachments; and there 
was a limit to her waiting. 

They all now knew that the man whom they had seen 
with the fishing-rod was the writer of the letter and was soon 
to visit the house. 

Frantze’s keen sense of the solemnity of a vow had not 
escaped Geraldine’s attention, and suddenly, — “I am the 
General now, and you must vow legions,” said she. 

wish you would go away!” said Frantze quailing. 

‘‘Well I shall not. I’m going to stand right here and say, 
will you vow? Will you vow? Will you vow legions, right 
over and over: and then get up early in the morning and the 
next day, and — ” 

“I just believe you will. I may as well vow allegiance first 
as last I suppose, for — ” 

“Honey, ‘a vow is a live promise’ which you must always 
keep,” said Ishtar. 

“So it is Ishtar. And I shan’t vow!” said he, rallying at 
the support of his aide de camp. And Geraldine fell away 
under Ishtar’s level-gaze; and muttering “two prigs” — next 
heard Ishtar quote the letter again, as a final rule of conduct 
for Frantze. 

For the children were being acted upon by this letter as 
peoples of all religions have been, by revelations made from 
a source and teachings above their full comprehension; that 
is, — each one was affected according to his or her spiritual 
receptivity and love of practicalizing the noblest ideals attain- 
able, or presented to inspection. 

The next day they were at play in the attic, when Geraldine 
saw Mr. Konnyngscrown drive up. She quietly put the key 


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in the outside of the room door, and then, again administered 
the vow of allegiance; which Frantze refused to take. 

Next, she and Ishtar were outside the locked door, and the 
key had gone into Geraldine^s pocket as she ghostily whis- 
pered through the key-hole, — “Dead men tell no tales,” 
and hurried Ishtar away with her. 

After sending up his card, Mr. Konnyngscrown waited fifteen 
minutes, when the door opened and there appeared a stout boy, 
with black hair and oddly fitting clothes. 

“Who is this?” he asked, slippressing his start and what 
might have been a cough. 

“Likely: I’m yer Frantze Anueland!” came the answer, 
with an attempt at palliating the naughty fib. 

“What, with that black h^air?” said he merrily taking the 
little actor’s hand. 

But she pulled away, crying out — 

“I don’t care, you’ll find Frantze can’t stand it to be one 
of those Great Ones. He can’t bear even to hear about the 
D of the T, — you know what — ? So I said I’d be it for him. 
Please let me, even if I am only a girl, as you scornfully think.” 

“Why do you want this my child?” he asked, bewildered 
at the super-readiness of the little maid to learn and suffer in- 
stead of another. 

“I want to be a Rosicrucian like in ^Zanoni,’ and be fit to 
do, all Glyndon was too fond of ^ happy rollickers’ to be able 
to do.” 

“Why do you want that?” he said, already at a disadvan- 
tage: for he was laughing and she was in dead earnest. And 
his amusement turned her good purpose into a scheme of re- 
venge on him and that enemy of woman (as her mother had 
said) Hhe world.’ 

“To live and scorn said she. 

“Good Lord!” said the man. Then catching himself up 
he more philosophically added, — interrogatively: — 

“And then?” 

“I’d smile a smile of scorn, till Kings came toothless, and 
Nations fell into their graves.” 

“And then?” (He was getting his lesson now.) 

She stood off, suspecting a trap, and so, stood off further, 
eying him, but beyond reach. Then — “Oh no I wouldn’t 


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71 


either. You mean I^d have to die and go to the place of the 
bad like the Sunday-teacher said I would. But I would not 
let there be any such; I would blast away, the Bad-place with 
a Rosicrucian-something! Beside, Tama said there wasnT 
any! But she said another day, that I^d have to go there if 
I did not make less trouble!’’ Then clenching her little fist 
she thumped his knees, crying, ^‘You’ve got to teach me. You 
would if I were a boy?” 

‘^No, no! not if you were a king,” said he, wondering if these 
knock-down arguments had become a feminine-trait here. 

‘‘King? Oh, king! I am better. I am the son, the child, 
of a Mason! I am a very unusual child.” She watched him. 
“Very well, all right,” she added, thinking of another story. 
“I will sell myself as the German Count did, and then Satan 
gave him all powers.” 

“Come then, tell me, what would you sell yourself for? 
What do you think would be a fair exchange for Geraldine 
Landseer? Look out now; because you can’t take back a 
bargain.” 

Her head forward, her mouth open and eyes alert she whis- 
pered, ready to run, “Are you the devil?” 

“No, but I wanted to hear what bargain you were going to 
make? For you see you own yourself! I doubt if you do 
know how valuable you are? Now you can do whatever you 
choose every day! But if you did, what you spoke of — 
Whew!” 

“I don’t do every day what I choose. If I did, I’d put 
people into chains to pay them off, and — defy them, — ” 

Then he stopped. He saw this was something much deeper 
than the naughtiness of a child, or common nonsense or bluster. 
It was ancestry; it was karma; it was, — what was it? It was 
a deep-seated sense of ancient wrong, defeat, unrequited in- 
sult, and a sense of soul-robbery. He covered his eyes, not 
to see those which looked into his, with depths of unutterable 
woe in their sombre shadows. Those eyes ? He knew them well. 
And he said huskily, — “Dear child, freedom midst harmonious 
activity is joy. License to work evil to others brings a worse 
perdition than fires of coal could kindle.” 

She was brought to bay. Then she said stupidly, “I don’t 
believe it. I won’t either. No one shall ever make me suffer.” 


72 


Who Builds? 


And at her wits’ end she meditated the feasibility of success- 
fully giving him a punch. But he looked very large and 
stout. And with a sudden quiet she said, confidentially, — 
‘^Of course you’re a great tell-tale! Of course you’ll tell 
Frantze how I teased you? Oh, of course you will?” She 
was poised on one foot, waiting for an answer. 

Never! It shall be a profound secret between us,” he 
said, — ^‘That is, as far as I am concerned. Now take off those 
ugly clothes; and be a sweet, — ” 

That was the word too much. 

O, tell what you want to,” she cried. won’t bargain with 
you. You’ll expect me to obey! What do you call that but 
selling me?” 

‘^My Lord!” said the man again, quite as if, like Tama he 
found contact with Geraldine drove one to prayer. 

But she was out at the window, and up by a way she knew 
to her room, where she found the pocket of her gown had been 
rifled of the key. Therefore she judged Frantze was released. 


There were marks of perturbation on her lofty countenance 
when Tama entered the room with Frantze and Ishtar, pre- 
senting them and making excuse for Mrs. Landseer whom 
she had been fifteen minutes persuading to come to the busi- 
ness in hand. Then she had had to find and release Frantze, 
and render both the children presentable. 

And now, hands crossed on her breast, head bowed and eyes 
on the floor, reverential in attitude, she yet had given Mr. 
Konnynscrown a penetrating, swift gaze. 

Mr. Konnyngscrown rubbed his hands twice sharply all 
over his head. But he was in for it he told himself, — wonder- 
ing why he was. Certainly so far no one seemed particularly 
to want him. His large hand came down with a grip on his 
thigh, and his eyes fell sombrely on Ishtar. 

We have come to learn,” she said. 

They seemed a hungry set along that line; at least the two 
girls did. 

Frantze still stood off silently. The man to him looked very 
bulky; and besides he hadn’t risen from his chair when they 
entered, and had but nodded when Tama presented her ex- 


Who Builds f 


73 


planations of Mrs. Landseer’s absence. Mr. Landseer would 
have arisen and have stood while receiving a message from a 
lady. More than that, often and often, Frantze had seen him 
arise before Tama. 

^^And you, Frantze Anueland? Are you as anxious as the 
little girls are for — learning?” said the man, with a strangely 
sweet light displacing the gloom, as his eyes had swiftly re- 
sponded to Ishtar. When she had spoken he had held out his 
hand to her, with a quick fetching back of his head and chin 
from the left to the right, as if to say, — “Ah, we’re friends 
sure and fast.” And Ishtar’s beautiful countenance had been 
squarely raised to his with what seemed to be a permanent 
good comradeship quite indescribable. But she stood straightly 
at his side, not leaning toward him, but with her hand in his, 
supportingly, rather than for support, as he, amused, per- 
ceived: while Frantze was saying in Mr. Landseer’s good Eng- 
lish and form, — impressed by his presence. 

“Mr. Konnyngscrown I’m a much older fellow than these, 
my little sisters!” (emphasizing the last word.) “And as you 
very well know, my life stretches back, covering much more 
than the incidents which have made up our life in this town.” 

Konnyngscrown settling back, felt again the need to grasp 
himself by the knees. Then — 

“I see,” he remarked aloud. “And what you say is very 
true.” 

This time his hands went deep into his pockets, and he 
drew his feet back together under his chair. His mouth 
stretched back, till it looked like a straight gash across that 
part of his face; and his level brows loomed blackly down, 
like a pre-resonant thunder-cloud. But his eyes, suddenly 
lifted full of misery-controlled, met Frantze: who, springing 
forward, flinging his arm round the broad neck, cried: 

“Mr. Konnyngscrown, Mr. Konnyngscrown! I mean also that 
I am glad of your help. For I am sure you have come to help 
me to carry out Mr. Landseer’s wishes as far as — as aunt 
Lamed- Ariosto and — the rest, choose to have them carried 
out.” 

“You have said it all, boy,” said Konnyngscrown paler than 
before, rising and standing away from under the arm; and 
walking a step away and back, before adding, — 


74 


Who Builds ? 


^^1 have come here practically for just what you say. But 
the additional business is, I have come, as your guardian as 
well as god-father. And that gives you certain special claims 
on me. For if you regard the wishes of her who — who gave 
you birth, and of the ^order^ of which you are a sub-member 
and ward, you will make what use of me you can for your 
own betterment, until you are of age.’^ 

^^My father? My mother?” questioned Frantze with lu- 
minous joy. 

^'Let that point wait. I have said nothing I need take 
back. Tama, tell Mrs. Landseer again, it is fitting that I 
should see her. Tell her I shall not intrude; but that I intend 
to do my duty all around. Tell her I would like to do it in 
comfort, and with a sense that I am not an annoyance to her. 
But, if she so commands me I shall take Hhe boy^ and leave 
the country at once.” 

do not so command you,” said Mrs. Landseer, sweeping 
in at that moment a sight for the children to behold. For 
they had not seen her dressed for dinner since a far away 
day. 

She was a very handsome woman, tall and steady in eye 
and pose. Not now angry or doubtful as to her relation to 
this man nor to the part she should sustain. 

Frantze rose immediately as his uncle would have done, 
and placing a chair stood then before her. 

Thank you, Frantze I will not sit. I have a few more 
words to say. Stay children. Tama remain. 

^^Mr. Konnyngscrown!” 

‘^Madame?” He moved a chair toward her. But she had 
said she would not sit, and she slightly noticed the matter. 

‘Hn slowly crossing the next parlor I heard nearly all that 
was said. That has simplified matters. Have you any dis- 
tinct request to make?” 

‘^Yes Madame. I would like to rent, for such a price as 
you choose to set, and for as long as you choose to let it re- 
main in my hands, a stretch of ground (just over the brow 
of the hill) the limits of which I will submit to you; whereon 
I will build a respectable house where I would live, taking 
Frantze to be homed there. With the further request that 
I may be allowed, (subject to your order to desist) to use so 


Who Builds ? 


75 


much of the fertile plain just above the intervale, as may be 
necessary for a garden place. At any day you may bid me 
leave, and I go. You may ask what rental you see fit, and 
shall receive it every month. 

^^We need not be friends,” said Mrs. Landseer, with a 
grave and passionless intonation; ^^but then, neither need 
we be fools. I shall use no ceremony in accepting this propo- 
sition; and quite as little in annulling it. Of course I don^t 
know what your purposes are, but this stretch of land is my 
kingdom, Mr. Konnyngscrown.” 

Truly so. And I shall be but your tenant at-will” he 
said. “The other formality is but a mere reception on your 
part, of this envelope with documents in which is all that is 
to be said and all that remains to be received from — the past. 
Allow me to withdraw!” and with color as heightened as 
Mrs. Landseer^s he moved back as from a royal presence. 

Frantze stood motionless. He saw Tama offer to assist 
Mrs. Landseer up stairs, to be but waved back as she proceeded 
to ascend the stair-case with that sweep of robe which fol- 
lows the motions of lithe, long-limbed women. 

“That,” said Tama breathing fast and half whispering to 
Frantze, “brings a change.” 

“No, everything is as it was, only more apparent,” said he. 
And in some way, what had seemed to be his “grand-fatherly,” 
priggish fashion, had, under his certainty as to his name and 
his right to place and purpose in the world, become a simple 
dignity, wonderfully like Landseer^s; yet quite Frantze^s own 
way too. 

It transpired that, with good sense, Mr. Konnyngscrown 
so far effaced himself, that when the new house finally came 
into being, it was so hidden by the crown of the hill that only 
the chimney top could be seen from Mrs. Landseer^s window: 
giving token that the man who had come to help — was there, 
though the earth was between them. 

He was particularly well satisfied with that plan which 
rendered it unnecessary for him to see, consult or consider 
Mrs. Landseer, so far as her elastic contract with him was 
concerned. For he felt more than ever that she was the exact 
type of woman that he disliked. But then, long since to him 
he told himself, all types were out of his range of interest. 


76 


Who Builds f 


He felt well off, that, as she tersely put it, they need not be 
friends; for he fancied that that would go far toward pre- 
venting their being fools. Whereas, as Mrs. Landseer thought 
over the tremendous purposes, history and romance in which 
they, too, were involved, she now, (seeing him with the chil- 
dren) thought possibly they might some time be friends ; but 
was sure they would neither of them ever be fools according 
to any justifiable use of the term. 

While waiting previous to presenting his purpose to Mrs. 
Landseer, Konnyngscrown had observed the legend carved in 
stone which met all eyes on entering that house. 

Through it, not only Landseer, but ^The Master^ seemed 
speaking to him, bidding him to not turn back from these 
rough ashlers, each of whom in this incarnation or another, 
must become a perfect building-stone, fitted to its place in 
the Temple Universal. 

He knew that what men could work in stone, could be wrought 
in the more malleable spirit-substance, if but that carnality 
of sight which now sees stone but cannot see spirit, were 
intellectualized. 

Perhaps not another such monument as this strange house 
could be found. Yet, in a way, every house is a tracery of 
the spirit of the worker who plans and rears (and who by occu- 
pying it) incessantly readjusts and constructs it. This he 
afterwards said to Tama, and she repeated it to Mrs. Landseer. 

The walls of the house were formed of an inner surface of 
finished stone, the plain parts of which largely awaited such 
carvings upon them as the history-making power of the fut- 
ure occupants might inspire. 

This at least was true of the rooms Mr. Konnyngscrown had 
seen. What was true of the others he did not know; but the 
family did, and that is another story. 

It was on one of the slabs in the spacious Hall-room, that the 
(so-called) common stone-cutter, in first finding what he 
could work at, found himself to be a creator and sculptor 
in high relief, of things, which William Blake’s pictures sketch 
as the NO thing out of ^ which all things are made.’ And 
as Jerome Konnyngscrown had had that sort of discipline 
which informs one of the fact that Ho know one’s self,’ rather 
than to be known to others, is the sine qua non of progress, 


Who Builds ? 


77 


the phantasmagorial scenes there carved were vocal to his 
mind. 

It was a potent house; that, no one knew better than did 
Mrs. Landseer. To the initiated, every part was vocal of 
skill, rescued and to be rescued from the stagnation which 
never settles except from an individuaVs ignorance of his and 
her own 'purpose of being. 

^^The workers change, but the work goes on,'^ was the 
golden legend seen at the entrance to the house. And as Mr. 
Konnyngscrown that day, sat waiting Hhe next thing,’ Mr. 
Landseer’s unsatisfied eyes had looked down on him from 
the portrait under which he had affixed his farewell word in 
the form of a verdict on himself. It was done as monks of 
old, illumined splendid texts. The words were: — ^'I wished, 
but was not able.” But too, it was Landseer who, soon after 
becoming master of the house, had had carved opposite the 
large entrance, “Here we ask nothing of society but the priv- 
ilege of serving it!” 

Konnyngscrown saw it, the house as it was, — a house full 
of noble assumptions. Should assumptions be left to be- 
come presumptions? Should the flooding passions of greed 
and extravagance, ignorance and self-destruction now delug- 
ing the world, sweep these noble assumptions out of existence, 
and with them, as chips on the torrent, the six people so in- 
timately connected with the halt here called against that dev- 
astating flood? 


78 


Who Builds ? 


CHAPTER VI. 

UNORDINATED VALUES, ORDINATED ACCORDING TO 
DIVINE ORDINATION. 

J EROME KONNYNGSCROWN was born among men, 
not a few of whom had followed Schopenhauer^s fashion 
of deifying the will-to-live.'^ His father had gloried 
in its crudities: and appreciating the power of early impres- 
sions, one day had given his son to understand that a great 
man was dying, a martyr to the will-to-live : (an anomalous 
statement even to the young ears that heard it) and then, with 
all the ^pomp and circumstance^ of a pilgrimage to a shrine, he 
had taken his son to see and hear that man with the result 
that, among Jerome^s earliest memories, was this visit to a 
vicinity where in the early sixties, Schopenhauer (‘unhonored 
and unknown’ except as the son of the authoress, Johanna 
Schopenhauer, daughter of Trosenor, a Senator of Danzig) 
awaited death amid a generation of shop-keepers which had 
come up about him at Frankfort on the Main. 

The effect of this mise-en-scene , had been as powerful as his 
father had intended. But later, in Jerome’s early twenties, 
an ingredient suddenly was added by the Ariosto-Rhoensteine 
(for by this name Lamed was early known in English circles) 
as set forth in the letter to Allierri. It was after that glimpse 
of the Ariosto’s ideal of life had crossed his enlivened vision that 
Jerome had rebelled against Schopenhauer’s exhibition of man 
as an inherent slave to the mere beast will-to-live. Though, 
at times, Jerome, himself was miserably hounded down by the 
feeling that he had to do at each step, what he finally did do, 
and that much had befallen him, which had befallen Schopen- 
hauer when he was trying to rid himself of the business of 
finance, into which his father was urging him. Though, 
later in life he believed, he like Schopenhauer, had failed of 


Who Builds ? 


79 


success in any calling because of his conviction that the philos- 
ophy of man-building (which he hoped he was yet to formu- 
late) would be of more value to the world than would be limit- 
less wealth if unbacked by the practicalization of his philosophy 
of supreme human development. But, with this maturing 
conviction of what he considered ^'his work,’’ he now realized 
that like Schopenhauer, he had inherited from his father, a 
^ dread bordering on mania’; against which ‘dread’ he had 
constantly to struggle: but which on apparently trivial occa- 
sions, overcame him unmanageably; at times distorting his 
view of life with a suspicion, irritability and a vehement pride 
almost incapable of being united with Philosophical coolness, 
which, throwing him off of his line of march, made him 
forget the visions which had inspired him in beginning his 
great plans for the betterment of the race. 

These conditions, which were filled with the blackness of 
darkness, he called, ‘ Schopenhauerized-States.’ He fled from 
them, and fought against them, but unawares, succumbed to 
them. 

At this time, however, his prevailing condition was one of 
consuming impatience to follow up the study which his mother, 
in dying, had commended to him as an object, the attainment 
of which in every sense, was in the line of the greatest wealth 
that time or eternity had to offer. 

This morning he was on tension to discover what had come 
of the union between ‘the Ariosto’ (to whose teachings he had 
been willing to commit his soul) and ‘that Archibald Land- 
seer,’ whose skill, it was said, lay in appropriating other per- 
sons’ ideals, without himself adding anything to the stock of 
human knowledge. 

Jerome wondered at that marriage from every point of view. 

For without being overpoweringly in love with himself, he 
supposed he had reason to think that — smite him on the brow 
though she did, yet — the Ariosto-Rhoensteine’s way of so spon- 
taneously unfolding to him her prophecies, had singled him 
out as one whose appreciative interest in higher attainments 
had rendered him permanently attractive. 

Had she then later, found Landseer more fit to practical- 
ize her theories? Why then this town-talk of her seclusion 
and of the many children who had been birthed and buried. 


80 


Who Builds ? 


in addition to the two who had lived? Jerome was sure that 
a style of parentage which included the burial of more than 
half of the children who were born, had had no part in her 
philosophy of life and parentage. Had she, in seclusion, fur- 
nished the ideas, while Landseer in public, had furnished their 
utterance ? 

Then he wondered if Landseer after ^getting away,' had dis- 
covered that what had fettered him, was not his wife; but that 
self-of-him from which he could get away only by volunta- 
rily getting out of his nerve-strained body? And wondered 
whether, on getting out of it, he still found he had to deal with 
the LIFE which then as before was himself? And, in that 
case what did such an act on his part show? 

Surely not the will-to-live, but rather the will to cease living. 
But had he ceased living? 

These and other equally unmanageable questions had made 
Jerome's night so vigilant and restless, that at break of day 
he gave up the attempt to sleep; and after a cold plunge set 
out on a double-quick march to a wooded country road. 

And now, in the solitude of the hour and the place, he threw 
himself face downward on the grass ; clasping mother Earth to 
his heart as if in the conviction that it was her business to 
furnish for the living as good a rest as she is supposed to fur- 
nish to the tenantless tenement when it is released from all 
further demands, but such as the hungry denizen of the grass- 
world may make on it. He lay with face half propped on hand, 
thus protecting eyes, ears and nostrils from the intrusion of 
creeping things that came as inspectingly rushing to the fray, 
as if life had left the new-comer. And with an impulse to let 
them know the difference, he sent forth a strong puff of breath, 
which struck like a tornado on a denizen of the greenery, sweep- 
ing it out, he knew not whither; inadvertently punishing its 
curiosity concerning him and, at the same time, so far awaken- 
ing his, concerning it, that he found himself realizing what a 
mighty fellow he was compared with that order of existence: 
and how overwhelming — if not destructive — was even the 
breath of his nostrils when brought to bear on these tiny other 
breathers. 

Next, unconsciously he bethought him of a better voluntary 
use to make of his breath ; and so essayed a fostering gale sent 


Who Builds? 


81 


out upon a little traveller who, assisted by it, went staggering, 
while yet pursuing his valiant way across a blade of grass. 
Then he experimented on a tiny'fly, sending it however into 
a spider^s web from which it emerged minus a leg that the 
spider^s skill had amputated as he lay in ambush. Increas- 
ingly interested in administering the affairs of this domain, he 
next took in hand the business of healing what he had helped 
to mutilate; unconsciously now blending with his breath an 
intelligent, kindly purpose which, concentrated, sent a new 
power in — not only on the mite he was desirous of helping — 
but in on that Solar Plexus of nerves, that conjoining the 
six lesser plexii baptized his whole system with a thrill, 
the like of which had never before come to it. For this was a 
baptism (not ^of Water’ not 'of Fire’ but) 'of The Spirif 
of that Life which, hitherto in its passion-alloyed-materialism 
had (not blessed but) harrassed him. 

Then upsprung the sun and outburst from Jerome’s lips and 
lungs an old English Hunting Song, bringing to the light- 
flooded glade, the salute: — 

''At dawn Aurora gayly breaks in all her proud attire, 

Majestic o’er the glassy lake, reflecting liquid fire. 

All Nature smiles to usher in — ” 

He halted, repeating the words 'usher in, usher in’ — a’ wait 
for the next words to come to mind yet wonderfully 
well content to inbreathingly repeat the words, 'usher in, 
usher in’ — while every nerve, responded to the gladsome gush 
of life with which the Sun of Righteousness and the sun of 
the visible day and 'Ushus, the Goddess of Morn’, or other 
intermediate, had baptized him, brain and being. 

What had fetched it? Was it that when, with discriminat- 
ing purpose he life-givingly had dealt out his breath to atoms 
which he wished — not merely to inspect but — all brotherly 
to serve, was it that then a Higher Power measured out to 
his atomic-being 'a discreet degree’ of life which filled him 
with as new an enlivenment as was that, with which his 'degree 
of Life’ had deluged 'these little ones’? Had he thus proven 
the validity of the statement 'with what measure ye meet 
it shall be measured to you again’? 

With this play of fancy, came another memory: startling 


82 


Who Builds f 


him with a reflection which he swept back, making room in 
his mind for the coming again of the old roundelay: — 

'All Nature smiles to usher in the blushing Queen of Morn 
And huntsmen with the day begin to wind the mellow horn. 
The mellow horn, the mellow, mellow horn: 

The mellow horn, the mellow, mellow horn. 

And Huntsmen with the day begin to wind the mellow horn, 
And huntsmen with the day begin to wind the mellow horn 
The mellow, mellow horn: the mellow, mellow horn’; 

until the breezes and singing birds bore their part with tones 
which were as mellow as those of the hunting horn whose 
quality it seemed impossible to repeat often enough for the full 
contentment of him who loved it so well. And blood, once 
a^bound for deer, was now a’bound to catch a glimpse of 
something lighter than the spirited Gazelle; picture as that 
is, of the Life-thrilling wonder known to young Elihu: and 
of which he spoke when, comforting the disappointed man, 
named Job, he explained to him, 

' ’Tis Shaddai’s Breath which gives me life. 

’Tis Shaddai’s Breath which gives Intelligence.’ 

A Gazelle-like picturing and presence which next moved the 
depths of Jerome^s being with the lullaby-question, 

'When Shaddai gives quiet who can disturb?’ 


Springing to his feet as if repelling siren voices, half unwit- 
tingly he exclaimed ^It’s my own Breath! My Own Breath!’’ 
resenting the vibrational-propulsions which had carried his 
soul beyond sight, time and space; and had mentally sent 
him a’staggering as his breath had sent the little insect a’ 
staggering, while yet leaving him (as he critically realized) 
to recover and pursue his work of discriminating between 
what he had himself willed to do, and what that other Some- 
thing, ‘working in and through him,’ seemed to be on the way 
to ‘will and do of its own good pleasure.’ 

On guard against any encroachment of anything on his 
own “TEiZi” (which his father had taught him was the man 


Who Builds ? 


83 


per se) and on guard against the objectional psychic-control, 
so increasingly extant, and yet knowing himself to be 
half-enchanted with the almost intoxicating effluence of that 
Light-supernal that had irradiated his despondency, he 
now, swore aloud by all the great gods of the heathen that 
he would never involuntarily be brought to do anything 
which he had not first, voluntarily elected to do, in sight of 
all the facts of the case. 

Bracing himself with a puffing out of his chest and a hol- 
lowing away of his elastically arched spinal-column and breath- 
ing up brainward big-lungs full of the morning air, he got self- 
centered enough to discover how far he had consciously ‘Willed’ 
participation in those sights, memories or ecstacies into which 
the coming of The Dawn, the rising of the sun and the singing 
of the birds had assisted in up-throwing him. Had he ‘Willed’ 
the awakening to memory of that hunter’s song? The super- 
sense of which had sent his soul out into those spiritual- 
hunting grounds whence ‘mighty Nimrods’ of old, returned 
laden with such signal accumulations of spiritual booty as 
Earth scarce has seen since days when ‘ the sons of God took 
to themselves wiVes from the daughters of men’? With the 
result, that there were ‘giants born in those days’: moral 
and spiritual giants? 

Astonished at this last access of prevision as to the possi- 
ble, he asked from whence it had come? 

Was it possible there was much for him to learn concern- 
ing the refined differentiation between voluntary and involun- 
tary activities? Was it possible that the quality of voluntary 
activities, was fugitive and transitory? — was often of the sort 
that perishes with the using? And the other? Was there 
in that, an eternized permanence, coming like a shadow of 
a ‘cooling rock in a thirsty land’? Easing the Dolor Cordis 
and bringing peace like a river? — filling the soul with serene 
certitudes which so utterly removed Fear as to make way for 
that Perfect Faith: which, being Intelligent is not foolhardy? 
and being bold, is not too Bold; yet bold enough to hold the 
sense-abilities steady, while enabling them to analyze differ- 
ences with that discrimination which alone keeps the student 
from falling into hurtful snares? 

These questions ascended one after another vaporizing the 


84 


Who Builds ? 


quiet, on which now followed reverberations of those thunders 
of Sinai which again sent him to his feet alarmed at this 
‘feeling after God,’ of whom scripture speaks as ‘a consum- 
ing fire.’ Shocked, perplexed, bereft, as if thrown down 
from rapturous heights where he had felt ‘ filled with the 
fulness of God,’ he petulantly declared that he, like the 
wealth-stripped-Job, had ‘no more profit from his righteous- 
ness than he would have had from sin.’ And angry, 
weary and discouraged he threw himself down on the 
grass with a fierce indrawing of his breath which indrew 
with it, a tiny insect that he instantly expelled with 
a dislike altogether disproportioned to its size or power to 
hurt. But it stuck to his tongue. He had to remove it on 
the tip of his finger. He looked at its almost invisible remains : 
questioning, ‘ Had the involuntary indrawal of his breath made 
him the annihilator of that little life’ ? He fiercely told himself 
he had not annihilated life; for life was an un-annihilatable, 
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient — what? Will-to-live? 
Oh, vastly more and other than a ‘will-to-live’: “It is Life, 
per se” he said, “high above (though inclusive of) all- wills: 
all Intelligence and all Individuated Thought: being not 
dominant over, but beneficently sovereign through all-that-is.” 

This statement belonged to the konnyngs (or knowledges) 
which of old in his hard-headed-studies he had committed 
to memory in that fixed and immovable German-fashion of 
memorizing-acquisitions which make the Germans to be kings 
of konnyngs or knowledges: barring out, though this mem- 
orizing-of traditions often does, that inflow of subtile-inspi- 
rations which comes from realms higher and as much more 
invulnerable than theirs, as theirs is higher than other average 
lack of philosophies. Of this he thought, and of his Mother’s 
reference to that old Chaucerized-English part of the family 
name : a name and a family which stood so inflexibly by ‘ knowl- 
edge,’ in distinction from intuitionj inspiration or Wisdom 
per se, that it had given this son of that Father and this Mother, 
a domain of knowledge, on which, armed, to stand against 
the intrusion of superstitions and vagaries. But now with 
the Mother moving in him, he argumentatively went on to ask, 

“But is it supposable that life, on emerging from that 
speck of a body next passed into a just-then-born similar 


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85 


form? Or, instead, had it wandered invisible; seeking another 
habitat; better fitted for the reception of the added-increase- 
of-experimental-knowledge which the engulfment in man’s 
breath may have brought the midget? 

Jerome realized he was not voluntarily grinding out these 
questions. Then was it, that his indrawal of Shaddai’s breath, 
(even with his breath’s engulfment of the Midget-form) riv- 
eting his mind on the chain of events had given him to see 
that though he had destroyed the microscopic-body and 
though in turn, ^ worms should destroy his body’ yet in the 
subst ant ialized-flesh ( which-is-yet-to-be-made-of-the-subst an- 
tialized-breath-that-God-incessantly- divides - out - to - his - creat- 
ures), they all, (he, Landseer and even the midget), would 
finally evolve the power to ^see’ that substantialized God, 
whose present-invisibility pertains (not to God nor to Shaddai 
but) to a Midget-like-humanity’s non-visualized relation to 
THE SUBSTANCE, Called Life? 

Then once and forever he realized (as he hoped) that the 
six-foot long curiously wrought body, known as Jerome Kon- 
nyngscrown, was no more in the sight of Almightiness than 
should be the little midget in Konnyngscrown’s sight. For 
all of the Life he could manage was in his body: the same as 
all of the Life the midget capacity could manage was in its 
little form. And that any one of a thousand accidents might 
expel the tenant from his body as easily as his breath’s en- 
gulfment-of-the-midget-form, had expelled from thence its 
tenant. 

The Light which his administration of affairs down in Grass- 
land had thrown on denizens there, not only had shown him 
his relations to that Almighty-Breath which fills all forms of 
being, but further, had revealed to him, that the development 
of each form is limited only by the amount and quality of 
LIFE that the Ego (mite or man) becomes capacitated to util- 
ize. Because, while the supply of Life is so limitless that Hhe 
Heaven of Heavens cannot contain it,’ yet the supply which 
the Ego may receive is limited precisely by its capacity for 
containance (or continence). So that if we are ‘straightened,’ 
we are only ‘straightened in ourselves,’ as St. Paul long ago 
told us. 

He shivered at the sight of these possibilities! Reaffirming 


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aloud (as a declaration of the natural right of a clear-minded 
man) — that Individual power depends upon the Individual^ s 
capacity for containance (or continence) of Life!” 

And with a devotion to the evolution of such capacity, he 
prayed (did Jerome Konnyngscrown in the solitude of Nature 
as men sometimes do pray) — not for wealth, not for popu- 
larity, not for external honors or graces but — for an endurance 
of the strain and restrain of nervous-energies, which other- 
wise, would pervert the Power of upward impulsion. 

Meanwhile, realizing that ^if a man does right, it is of no 
benefit to the Breath of Lives! If he does wrong it does not 
harm the Breath-of-Lives. But that the doing of wrong ‘may 
injure and pertain to man : and to the Son of Man, his righteous- 
ness.’ He knew this ideal was opposed to the Jehveh idea: and 
was inclusive of the teaching beloved of his mother that a man 
should do right simply because Right is right. As any ex- 
pectancy of reward would spoil the quality of the service: 
making a mercenary matter of it. Was it then, that the 
Jehveh ideal was cruel and the Je/ioveh ideal was kind, and 
more than kind: — was on the road to being emotionally de- 
structive? 

Surely under this liberating view he had felt as if the breath 
of Life had as pleasurably sped him along as his breath had 
sped that insect pilgrim across the grass-blade when he had 
practically said to it “Fear not. Walk before my breath’s 
impulsions.” 

But not yet daring to give way to this ‘push,’ he asked, “Is 
it possible that, to merely walk before the auspicious gale, 
sometimes breathed on our subconscious selves, would service- 
ably co-ordinate us with universal necessities? Mental, moral 
and spiritual? Is it possible that Life, Eternal Life, need- 
ing nothing and missing nothing, yet shows men their aside- 
steppings either to the right or the left of the straight path? 
And opes their ears to discipline: and warns them (with a 
breath) away from that which is not good? Lest they learn 
not knowledge? Was then knowledge the Highest wealth? 
And is then the worst possible destitution and the worst possi- 
ble disaster, ‘the Learning not of Knowledge’? Was it thus 
with Man? And was it thus with Midget? He asked again. 
Had there to the Midget- consciousness come an arrest of the 


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87 


learning of knowledge, at its expulsion from Midget-form? Or, 
on the reverse, when the breath of man had engulfed the Midget 
in it, then had the midget-consciousness learned from its ex- 
perience of that engulfer^s power, a somewhat that had aided 
it on its way to become, time-given, as mighty a creature as 
was its engulf er? 

Then: was it into such a vortex that he, fifteen years before, 
had been drawn by the breath of that Ariosto Rhoensteine ? 

And had that engulfing of him been done as involuntarily 
and unconsciously as was his engulfing of the Midget ? 

Her shock when he had fallen at her feet was but as great 
as his, when into his mouth the Midget had fallen: and her re- 
pulse of him was but as instantaneously automatic as had been 
the expulsion thence, when into his mouth he had drawn that 
little Midget-form. He, as angry at it for being killed as she, 
had been at him, for ^arresting Knowledge,^ by his fall at her 
feet. 

True: he, from that engulfment in her indrawn-breath, had 
arisen, as from a barphometic baptism into — What? A New- 
ness of Life? No: — a newness of expectancy which had met 
the stroke, that had struck him back to find what he wanted, — 
not in another but — in himself: as before she had told him it 
must be found: 

Yet unwilling to believe the outcome of these ratiocinations: 
he now but asked himself for the thousandth time what right 
or cause she had, or what excuse she could give, for such an 
unheard of act of rudeness. 

Then thought he, ^No more cause than I had for engulfing 
the mite.^ Now realizing that he had been simply thinking 
and breathing when the mite was engulfed in his breath as 
she had been simply thinking and breathing when he had fallen 
at her feet, self-succumbed to a Power as unwittingly sent forth 
by the one as by the other mere breather of The Creative- Life 
of God! 

And that stroke? Was it automatically given to repel his 
intrusive subjection to a power outside of his own soul? 

^‘Subjection?’' questioned he, repellently. “She must have 
known it was but for a moment. But — then why did I take 
that farcical attitude at her feet? No! It was not ‘but for a 
moment.’ For as ‘the Lord liveth’ I believe I am there still! 


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Who Builds ? 


But, I would not have been, if the very act by which she re- 
pulsed me had not attracted me and impressed her on my 
mind as never before anything was impressed/^ 

And having got hold of this, he was all the angrier. For he 
declared, he had not been in the wrong: because, the over- 
mastering-thrill he had felt, had like a sesame-seed capacitated 
his soul with the grace to perceive that she possessed what, if 
he could gain it, would have made him man. 

Then uttered as at his memory^s core came the words, 

Tis Shaddai’s breath that made me man’^; — halting him, 
but yet, in effect, only transfusing him with a wish for union 
with — not Shaddai but — her from whose inspiration had come 
that etherealization of brain and being: the Source of which 
he still ascribed to the Maiden who, fortunately for him, better 
than he, had innately apprehended its Real Source ; and his real 
needs and his individualizing-possibilities ! 

But of these facts even now he caught scarcely a glimpse. 
Nothing now actuated him but a self-protecting hate of the 
woman who (as he half surmised) willingly accepted that from 
him, rather than any other form of concentrated attention. 

So he found himself back in his old-mire of Schopenhauerized- 
gloom! Then, disputatious-mortal that he was, rebelling 
against that theory of Life, he went over the reversive-ques- 
tionings which his mother, in refuting Schopenhauer, had 
given, ^for his consideration,’ namely — 

Is Life a devouring horror? maintained by the instincts of 
hunger and pro-creation? Is love but a greed which leaves 
man to consume all on self and for self? And must the will- 
to-live include the incessant devouring of the weaker by the 
stronger and more predacious? And must this struggle only 
end in a dull resignation to life’s miseries such as had settled 
on the death-struck Schopenhauer? And even then, had that 
man’s devotion to the will-to-live but revealed to him that, 
when the devourer has devoured all else, he must then con- 
sume himself, (^consume himself’ was the word) or ceasing to 
be a devourer, deny, by dying, the will-to-live? 

Against this bulwark of reversionary questions Jerome had 
been wont to lean when The enemy came in like a flood.’ 
And with an enlightening of soul he now called to mind the 
philosopher’s latest words that — Tor old people and the 


Who Builds ? 


89 


middle aged the most necessary learning often proves to be 
the unlearning of things taught them in their childhood con- 
cerning this world of cause and effects/ And, grateful that 
what he had learned at his mother^s side need never be un- 
learned, and, also, agreeing, with Schopenhauer’s latest regret 
over Hhe lack of the naturalness in Education which thrusts 
in on children, artificialities of judgment to the ruin of all right 
order,’ and also responsive to the philosopher’s almost dying 
words, that Hhese regrets would not be too late uttered if 
some one would find a way of training children to more fully 
follow their intuitions’ — Jerome Konnyngscrown rose up in 
the beams of the now fully arisen Sun: filled with hopes which 
had arisen as high concerning the carrying out of the purpose 
with which he had come to America! Now realizing the fact 
that the educational basis already laid by the unrestrained 
browsing of these children amid something more than the 
mere libraries of that home was far from being a source of 
discouragement. For the children’s haphazard way of putting 
together Bible-history and other ancient lore, added to their 
prying scrutiny of everything they ever heard, read or saw, 
was all but like the mental movements of the alertest citizens 
of the world at this epoch. And he decided to look after the 
children as far as Mrs. Landseer would accept his aid and then to 
search for the missing child at the thought of whom his mind 
reverted to Geraldine. 

He started on the way but was stopped as if verbally as- 
sured that Mrs. Landseer was empowering her daughters to 
fulfill their part in this enspiritizing epoch by sustaining them 
in that perfect freedom which neither accepts not offers per- 
sonal intrusion: a freedom in which alone they would learn to 
co-ordinate the faculties given them by their Creator. 

Whence had come this ? Of old he had had but one day’s con- 
versation with The Ariosto, and two brief sights of her since. 
True, in that one day, she had said, ‘Trouble will cease when 
the world learns simply to ordinate unordinated- Values. Be- 
cause in the Spiritual world (and so, all the way down) it is 
the nature of Ordinated-Value involuntarily to correlate the 
unordinated with itself. Because the ordinated, vibrates on so 
nice a beam as to attract to it other souls who are seeking 
‘Libration.’ 


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Who Builds ? 


And now across space, came to him thoughts neither of 
repulsion nor of attraction but of an intellectual assurance 
that the work he was seeking to do was dear to Mrs. Landseer, 
and was being done by her in the seclusion that was also dear 
and requisite to her for another decade. 

Yet he felt repelled and vexed. 

For he had no way of knowing that the once brilliant Ari- 
osto having become the distressedly tired Mrs. Landseer could 
now no longer endure to talk about what, to her was so self 
evident a conclusion as to amount to a mere axiom easily to be 
acted on in home-life. Much less did he know that her need 
for quiet in which to rally from her life’s fatigues repelled her 
from a man whose hurtling energies set the very air a’quiver 
about him. 

The chief thing this rather-good man did know was, he was 
tired of trying to transact affairs through Tama’s word-of- 
mouth. And what he further knew was, that now, regardless 
of everything, he meant to call that morning and put an end 
to Mrs. Landseer’s sequestration. 

He called. 

He was met only by Tama. 

This vexed him. And in trying to bring her to a knowledge 
of the critical condition of the Landseer affairs, he used the 
very term he had mentally rejected that morning: ^The will- 
to-live’: thereby bringing out Tama’s repudiating ejaculation; 

^^De Will ter lib? Dat’s not much. De Beastes, hab dail 
De Wisdom ter lib wisely and well, dat am de Law ob de House 
of Lamed Ariosto-Rhoensteine; Landseer!” 

And as one who had at last heard a word for which he had 
waited he repeated the statement : and then, notebook in hand : 
wrote: 

^‘The Law of the House of Lamed Ariosto Rhoensteine; 
Landseer is The Wisdom to live wisely and well? But to 
fulfill this Law: Hhat the labor is’!” And taking off his hat 
to Tama with a new light in his eyes, he went his way, more 
than content with some outlook, now gained. 

An hour later Mrs. Landseer received a letter containing a 
check for the year’s rental of the land under consideration: 

which (he wrote to say he would proceed to build upon and 
occupy: while occupying himself and the children (if Madame 


Who Builds ? 


91 


so pleased) with the land: according to FroebeFs invitation, 
^Come! let us play with our children/ ’’ 

Though the letter was perhaps, bunglingly brief, Mrs. Land- 
seer read it finally with trust partly in the substantial good- 
ness of the Man, Jerome Konnyngscrown and partly, in the 
flexibility of conditions which left it feasible (if uncom- 
fortable circumstances arose) to dismiss the tenant as by him 
agreed. This gave her ease. For she knew the narrowness 
of her limitations when it came to the endurance of the vibra- 
tions with which this personality kept the air a^buzzing around 
so nerve-strained a being as the endurance of the last fifteen 
years had created. 

She had never met Konnyngscrown but one day until the 
occasion of the land-rentage proposition. 

And she never wanted to see him again. The past did not 
admit of discussion: and as for the future, as far as she and 
her children were concerned. Work was its one business. 
The recent years had been too full of matters unexplainable 
to ordinary minds for her to care for contact outside of her 
narrow family, till nearly another decade should have passed. 
Any identification with even this good man, from society where 
the practicalization of the principles at the foundations of 
TRUE Being, are glossed over, she felt would include intro- 
ducing into the home-circle a diverting influence, from which 
she meant to protect it until her ideals had become distinctly 
known to that circle : after which they should be at liberty to 
choose what they each individually saw fit. 

Besides, just now she was chagrined that she, who believed 
in health to a degree that left her no mercy for herself if she 
ever failed of possessing it, was at times so over shattered 
by her over-draughts of ^ endurance^ that she had now to de- 
cide to thrust away anything that called for ‘endurance’; over 
and above whatever her own family-duties necessitated. And 
she told herself, if Konnyngscrown could not understand this, 
he must avail himself of the privilege of misunderstanding: 
and therewith go his way. She did not deny to her self how- 
ever, that there was a sense of comfort that some one from 
home (as she called England) had a little lifted the weight of 
isolation under which Landseer’s death had left her. But on 
the other hand, she frankly told herself, the pleasantest thought 


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relative to the matter was, she could, at any moment, put an 
end to the business: though, she admitted, if it could be sus- 
tained at the remoteness which exists between a self-occupied 
proprietor and a self-occupied tenant, it would go far to secure 
her and her children in the continuance of a well equipped 
home, sufficiently apart from minds unequipped with that 
ideal of personal Liberty which — as far as she could see — did 
not even as yet, especially distinguish this far-famed land of that 
Goddess. 

Early in the morning, there had shot through her mind the 
wish that, without talking over her theories with him, Kon- 
nyngscrown could realize that she proposed to practicalize just 
one of the ideals for which, fifteen years before she had been 
willing to work as long as life should last. 

Her brain, like a snap shot caught and must have sent to 
him a picture of what existence would be, if unordinated- values 
were ordinated according to Divine Ordination. But what 
good? She had always done according to her best and (she 
believed) true sight of the facts of each case: yet nothing 
but a network of egregious misconstructions had accrued to 
misconstructing-minds. And these were not a few. 

She hated to think (and it was likely she should soon so 
think) that society had little use for woman’s more stalwart 
virtues. She knew she had once become tired to the point 
of doubting whether God cared to have Woman practicalize 
His characteristics. But even then, she had comforted her- 
self with the thought that she did right not even to win His 
approbation: but out of a pure adoration for His character- 
istics, as she understood them. So after all, at best, it might 
be selfishness on her part! For she confessed she found exqui- 
site pleasure in concurring in Wisdom’s Way of Working on 
and Working ever. She loved work and loved Home. Glad 
she was to have one! 

One day she had been looking out of the window, as she 
stopped her ever mending needle: thinking on this problem 
and on the drizzling-weather, inclined to find fault with 
it, as all white and weepful in that late spring-time, it went 
on (like herself) contributing its share to the final result: 
which, the Sun when it came forth, would make visible. How 
unfittingly worn and weary her nerve-system had become, and 


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93 


how requisite it was that she should hold to the semi-seclusion 
that her work-rooms afforded, this reverie showed her. 

They were not handsome rooms. They had never been 
Landseer^s. Always they had been her place of retreat. In 
them her children had all been born. In them, some had died. 
In them she had had the experience which was connected 
with her Lifers unravelled mystery and with Geraldine^s. 

Having thought her way straight through this rather grue- 
some and circuitous-route she found herself alone again with 
her certainty that her ideal was her darling. For fortunate or 
not, it was her temperament to wed herself to (not persons 
but) principles: ideal-principles, permanent-principles! Her 
ambition was not for power or place in the world but, to so 
relate her children to the indwelling power of the Principle- 
of-life that they would be able to formulate their ideal in 
action: without going through the heart-tearing which had 
attended her efforts in that direction. 

Then she wrote an answer to Konnyngscrown^s business 
proposition, enclosing a corrected appraisal of the rent of the 
land now occupied by him and returning to him Twenty 
dollars which she told him was over and above what was 
requisite. 

This was the first money transaction in which she had 
taken free part for years. When the letter was gone, there 
came out on her gray face and in her figure that coloring and 
alertness which the impulsion of heart-beats accelerated by 
brain-created activity brings. 

The spring was coming on and the house was well along 
in the building when walking with Ishtar one day, Konnyngs- 
crown asked her, where was their garden. And she, benevo- 
lently sweeping the whole space, including the sky-garden 
above their heads, answered ^^DonT you see it all? Up there, 
we have different kinds of Moons growing. Sometimes they 
are round and sometimes they are like little silver-boats. And 
then there are different kinds of clouds almost every day. 
And stars! Oh! The stars! The stars! And strawberries grow 
out of the ground, with leaves like umbrellas. They are red, 
the strawberries and they have little bits of straw stick- 
ing over the outside of every one of them. Mother Maie 


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put those straws there, Tama says. But they are never on 
the outside of huckleberries. They are all packed together 
on the inside of huckleberries; and then they are not straws. 
Tama says they are seeds.’ ^ 

^^But what do you do with your land?” 

^^Why we walk on it, and sometimes we lay our heads down 
on it and listen to it think. For it thinks love-fulness to all 
the roots of things growing there. And in the spring-time 
when the earth crowds the roots a little, the crocuses croak. 
And when the snow stays too long, they croak and cus’ too! 
Frantze — ” 

Ishtar,” cried he with a laugh — and a snap out of his 
tongue, and hunch of his shoulders at Mr. Konnyngscrown, 
as much as to say, — ^^now I’ve got it, — ” while Ishtar con- 
tinued, — 

‘‘They can’t help it! When it gets very chilly and they 
get very hoarse, they become croak cusses; and they say (very 
barky) ‘ Let me up ! Let me up ! I want the sun ! I want 
the sun!’ But, but — Frantze isn’t barky! He has a beauti- 
ful singing voice. He sings Longfellow’s song of Agassizes 
fiftieth birthday. Oh beautiful and wonderful it is. Part 
of it goes this way, — ” she said shrilling forth divinely, — 
“‘And he wandered away and away, with Nature the dear 
old nurse; and she sung to him night and day, the rhymes 
of the universe. And whenever the way seemed long, and 
his heart began to fail, she would sing a more wonderful 
song, and tell a more marvellous tale.’” 

She stopped, herself as entranced with the words which 
she had just sent thrillingly into the air, as was Jerome. For 
the weird words set to more weird music, seemed calling him, 
to fetch out for these children everything that scientific lore 
and dramatic artifice together could offer, if he hoped to 
succeed in adding anything to their present impression of 
nature’s powers to supply super-sensuous needs. He felt as 
if he were one of a congress assembled to consult over the 
question — “How to build with the Spirit-substance of which 
these children seemed but the continents.” 

Then Ishtar asked, — “What is that more wonderful song? 
What is that more marvellous tale? I wish I knew just what 
mother Earth says.” 


Who Builds? 


95 


^'Perhaps she says, ^ knock and it shall be opened unto 
you,’^^ he answered. ‘^At any rate we might try. Or — 
better yet, I know of a key, which, thrust in, would let out, — 
let’s see, — how would you like to have it let out a whole 
clothes-basket full of — strawberries.” 

^^With straws sticking in every one of them?” whis- 
pered Ishtar with rapture too deep for words. Then the 
memory of Frantze’s Munchausenesque tales made her doubt 
and add: — ^‘But I don’t want any Aladdins? no Genii nor 
anything burstful like! Only just let’s have at it, the god- 
mother and the moon and stars, and us all; and people com- 
ing in from everywhere!” 

^^Very well, I like that,” said Jerome. ^^But this unlock- 
ing business requires four things; — Time, and Personal Ser- 
vices and some kind of a medium-of-exchange and personal 
credits. We needn’t hurry nor worry, but just plan right, 
and work, watch and discover and then work again. For 
always then, what we don’t understand on Monday, we shall 
be pretty sure to know by the next Saturday night; and thus 
be ready for larger enterprises on the next Monday.” 

^‘Of course,” said Ishtar. ’Cause it’s prob’ly knowledge, 
held temptin’ like above our ignorance. Tama thinks so too. 
Now for the key. Put it right into the lock,” she said with 
as swift expectancy as if she saw it in his pocket. 

Luckily Jerome had prepared himself for this divine im- 
patience, which is far more a proof of faith in immanent Power 
than is the dawdling (so-called) ^patience’ heretofore extolled; 
and which has been therefore cultivated because extolled; 
and (again) has been therefore needed because it has been 
cultivated. 

“Where is the key? And what is it? Show it to me now,’! 
persisted she. 

“It is intelligent labor! As to ^ where it is’? Oh, children are 
potentially full of it! For the vital substance in their veins 
and brains — if they reverently concentrate attention on the 
thing to be done — enables them to do perfectly everything 
which they can imagine clearly! Children and all heavenly 
places are full of it and always have been! For ‘The 
Teacher, ’ when he walked this earth said, ‘ My Father work- 
eth hitherto’ (that is, from the beginningless-beginning) ‘and 


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Who Builds ? 


I workJ But of course in order to be able to understand 
how to work as the Great Worker works, every one must just 
develop his own inmost and utmost intelligence! And of 
course we must just concentrate all our power on the matter 
in hand/^ 

^^What is concentrate?’’ 

'^It is just what people commonly seem to know how not 
to do! In fact, they don’t know what to concentrate; so 
we get a lot of bungling blunders instead of Intelligent Labor 
or teaching.” 

^‘Is the key lost? Oh, don’t say so. Come, let us do the 
best we can!” said Ishtar, taking Jerome’s hand encouragingly. 
^^Put the key in this minute, and we will make a start. Then 
we will call and have people come in from everywhere.” 

'‘Very well,” said Jerome. "But everywhere includes a 
long way off as well as near at hand. If we were on a sum- 
mit of a mountain in Switzerland we would send out a yodle 
across to people on other mountain tops. Well, in a sense 
we are! Let’s call this spot, the mountain-top of true vision! 
For I Gould send out a call from here and see if some other 
mountaineer who also has a vision of intelligent work, may 
happen to hear and answer the call.” 

Then the yodle of the Tyrolese, rang fairly over and through 
the town. 

"They ought to hear that everywhere,” said Mr. Konnyngs- 
crown. "But everywhere must include the very spot we 
stand on, so here goes for another.” 

Then such a yodle rang forth that, behold, as in the magic 
of the artificial magician who prepares his effects before sum- 
moning the Genii, men came winding over the field, approach- 
ing from opposite points of a transverse line, two by two, 
fetching forward ploughs pulled each by two good horses. 


With military precision they halted, one plough at the point 
A, and the other at the point C, — just as Mrs. Landseer, with 
Tama in turbaned array bringing for Lamed, a light chair, 
approached at the point in the imaginary vertical line G, 
toward which Mr. Konnyngscrown and the children, standing 
together at E, faced. 


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97 


‘^Behold the key! Advance, Intelligent Labor, and unlock 
the door to the treasure cities of Pithom,^’ cried this master 
cheerily. And again the yodle sounded forth, and at the last 
upward launch of its sky-ward note, the plough-share at point 
A and the plough-share at point C pierced the sods. 

Then the horses and men advanced, — one plough-share turn- 
ing the furrow from A to D, and the other from C to B. 

The ploughmen saluting the spectators as they passed at E, 


B 

H E 


G A 

K J 

L 

C F 


D 


and then, going on to the end of the acre each there reset 
his plough for cutting the next furrow back; repeating these 
tactics again and again, till at last, each ploughman in cutting 
his furrow back, having approached within a few furrowsi width 
of the vertical line G, F, halted there with statuesque effect. 

It was a splendid acre, and the furrows which had now been 
turned, defined the measure of the square. Yet before this 
had been thus defined, imagination and geometrical calcu- 
lation had been able to see this, that was now visible, as a yet- 
to-be part of the whole plain which an hour or so before, 
all unbroken, had lain there in the sun. 


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The horses were splendid animals ; the holders of the ploughs 
were splendid men working with the best of hand ploughs 
and with perfect skill. The two groups of three persons 
each, standing there at the centre E, had been silent, as they 
had watched the sight of (not military but) agricultural tactics. 
So, when the horses, ploughs and men had reached points, 
at which one plough stood at L, just as the other plough had 
reached K, they were then so near together that, if they 
had passed each other again, in the act, they would have 
had to encroach on the ground under the feet of the group 
standing at E. But at this point, each team having halted, 
suddenly turning outward from the acre, simultaneously 
passed forth, one team along the line E — H — and another 
along the line K-J — , vanishing suddenly by different routes as 
they had come, out over the slope beyond: and leaving an 
unbroken sodded path along the line G — F — ; and a sodded 
square at the center, where were the spectators. 

The six persons had it therefore at their option to walk 
forth from the ploughed acre, regardless of the fact that 
the Key of Intelligent Labor had been thrust into the 
Treasure-House and of the fact, that before the Treasures 
could be brought out, the Key would require many another 
turn. 

An outburst of amused appreciation saluted the soldierly de- 
parture of ploughs and ploughmen; ’mid which Mrs. Landseer, 
thanking Jerome for ^‘the pretty spectacular scene,” took 
Tama’s arm and walked out over the greensward toward the 
^master’s house,’ where the Mistress evidently meant to regain 
seclusion. 

In her swift glance there was an honest liking for the work 
and the workers, but the hold-off effect of her words, were not 
disguised as she left the scene. That, Konnyngscrown per- 
ceived. If he had not, Geraldine’s half scowl at him as she 
strode off close to Mrs. Landseer’s side would have sufficiently 
emphasized the possibility that, for the rest of the play, he 
and Ishtar were likely to have the Key-turning-business to 
themselves. 

His stride was somewhat lengthened and the pounce of his 
heel in the sod was emphasized, as with Frantze and Ishtar 
he went his way out through the other end of the green-path. 


Who Builds ? 


99 


shall give it another turn: and just as many turns with 
people coming in from everywhere as there are new Mondays, 
new days and new ways,’^ said Ishtar, putting her hand into 
his, and stretching out bravely with her little legs, trying 
to keep step with the long strides, partly representative of 
this man^s long wrath at that woman. For of all the sorts of 
women he had ever seen, this woman was to him the most 
irritating and perplexing specimen. He was muttering un- 
heard, when the grip of the friendly little hand warmed his 
heart. He clasped it tightly as he glanced back over his 
shoulder. 

The spring had gone out of the proud step of the woman 
whose sufferings were as intense as her pride seemed to be 
and whose effort after a well-poised life had been her only 
transgression. 

Tama was supporting her now while Geraldine^s face was up- 
raised in devotion to the white one above her, keenly read- 
ing there what she recorded as her future law of life. 

Konnyngscrown was but tasting the fact that the toil with 
which a social magician and society-builder introduces the 
conditions of a more beautiful civilization while holding all 
preparations in abeyance to the dramatic effect of the result, 
was very likely to be misunderstood by the masses: if, even 
such a woman as Mrs. Landseer found it in her heart to but 
call this tableau vivantj ^a pretty spectacular scene.’ 

^^To be sure,” thought Konnyngscrown, ^Hhat was greater 
approval from her than lavish effusions, would be from 
a more civil woman!” Besides, he was not doing it for her. 
He was doing it to please himself, and to practicalize his 
theories, during the intolerable leisure which was thus made 
more tolerable. He told himself he wished to set forth graph- 
ically, the grace of redemption by work. And now he ex- 
plained to Ishtar (perhaps as a reminder to himself) that high 
success is dependent on unfaltering devotion to the ideal! 
‘‘Because, though you and I, for instance Ishtar, understand 
the beauty of work without having recourse to the ‘pretty 
spectacular scene’ for which Mrs. Landseer so kindly thanked 
me, yet, it is to be remembered that to the people, who have 
been deluged in drudgery, (and their parents and grand- 
parents before them,) spectacular effects may convey swift 


100 


Who Builds ? 


instruction concerning the real beauty which is in w'ork 
beautifully done, external or internal. 

^^It is time to show, that the dreary methods of toil belong 
to a different epoch from this! If we choose, we can all glorify 
work; that is, we can fill it with glory and buoyancy by 
taking hold of it with an intelligent grip; empowered as we 
now are, by the aid of electrical contrivances.^' 

He had further talk with her, which he was more than will- 
ing she should repeat to Mrs. Landseer; and this willingness 
to be reported echoed through his rather stilted words that 
day: and seemed to Ishtar as beautifully spectacular as the 
scene had seemed to Mrs. Landseer. But there was not much 
repeating nor discussing in that household, except what Tama 
originated. The children had a well grounded conviction 
that ^ Lamed- Ariosto ; Landseer^ (as they now saw her signature 
appear) had a full view of the lay of the land concerning all 
purposes, without much bothering over lumbering words. 

The next morning, through the house, rang Ishtar's voice, 
calling ^‘Come Geraldine, come Tama, come all! Let's turn 
the key in the door of mother Maie's treasure-house! We 
are to call out, — ‘Cultivated strawberries!'" 

“Oh — Oh — Oh! Hear the prig. You sound like Mr. Kon- 
nyngscrown," said Geraldine. 

“He's a beautiful sounding man," said Ishtar tranquilly, 
but with conviction. “Come to the matin hour Geraldine. 
We are going to our orisons! Work is worship. ‘Strawberries, 
strawberries, fine and perfect of their kind, come forth, come 
forth'! That is our song to-day." 

“It is not a song; it is just common farming," said Geraldine, 
as one not to be duped. “With overalls and old hats! He 
isn't any body. He? He is only a little different and talks 
beautiful sounding words." 

“No, no, he thinks intelligently and acts out his thoughts. 
He thinks, ‘let be,' and it is!" said Frantze. “He says we 
must work with nature, not against her. But it will take 
lots of work for nearly two years before we get back much 
on that investment. Besides, Mr. Konnyngscrown says, a 
few weeks' neglect, now that we have put in the key will but 
let out a crop of weeds; and everything will look a hundred 


Who Builds ? 


101 


times worse than as if we had left things quiet. That’s always 
one of the consequences of undertaking great things instead 
of doing nothing. I think myself, this pretty green slope 
looked better than this ploughed land. Besides, strawber- 
ries are only twenty or twenty-five cents a box” said Frantze. 

^^Well, where’s your twenty-five cents to get your box?” 
said Geraldine crisply. 

^‘As for that, if I haven’t the twenty-five cents I can go 
without the berries. So that it comes to the same thing,” 
said Frantze with lazy resignation. 

Geraldine had a vague sense that while life might not con- 
sist in the abundance of things which a man has or eats, neither 
did it consist in the multitude of things which he went with- 
out; especially if laziness, instead of personal abstemiousness 
was the cause of his going without. And she covered the ground 
well enough presently, by saying out of her generous impulses, 
— ‘‘But then, you don’t have any to give away.” 

“All right! For if I can go without them, other people 
can,” — said Frantze jocosely, striking at the root of the argu- 
ment used by false economists who would train men to live 
on a niggardly principle resultant on the stagnation of the 
abundant use of those joyous personal services which naturally 
called forth, would set in circulation for the good of the 
whole race, the various commodities with which Nature’s 
treasure-house teems. 

Ishtar looked at the disputants with superb repose, as she 
said conclusively, “No one should go without any of the 
things which the Treasure-house does not want in it. Mother 
Nature loves to ‘put forth the guerdon,’ which would else be 
a burden! Don’t go without; go within and get it Geraldine! 
Come, let’s get out those strawberries for mother, Geraldine,” 
she added. And away they all went to that acre, which the 
plough had now christened ‘garden’: though the garden was 
but a prospective possibility, subject to the vicissitudes which 
neglect might fetch on it. 

It does not require a very fertile imagination to perceive 
that there was a stir in the town over the coming of the new 
man and his new methods, relative to the new activities at the 
“Master’s House.” 

The swiftness with which the land rental and house build- 


102 


Who Builds ? 


ing was carried on and the simplicity with which the transfer 
of the boy had been accomplished, was a matter of large com- 
ment. Whether boys could be befriended without legal pro- 
cedure, or whether such a portion of an estate could be prac- 
tically transferred without consulting lawyers by the way, was 
a thing to speculate upon. Then too, what effect would it 
have on wages? And where would ordinary, good ploughmen, 
find themselves if a play-acting sort of a man were allowed 
to pick out and drill four handsome athletes whose brains con- 
centrated the action of eye and hand, foot and will, as (like 
prize pitchers in a ball game) they ploughed that field? And 
what were men with starved down horses to do, if four such 
glorious Kentuckians as these, with such ploughs and tackle 
as that outfit showed, were picturesquely to officiate over an 
acre of soil which was richness itself; prepared for a lawn as 
it had been? 

It was said those fellows had been paid something dreadful 
to contemplate; just doing that easy job dramatically, and 
looking handsome while they did it. For one reason or an- 
other, several persons felt badly aggrieved. 

But when the w^ord reached them circuitously from Mr. 
Konnyngscrown that he was on a summer vacation and was 
only playing with his old friend^s children, the matter seemed 
a little unmanageable. For it was his own money he was 
putting into the play, and there were men who played worse 
games than that with their money, as was generally agreed. 
Then, too, thought the butchers and grocers and builders, 
‘ if he is opening up a house he will be filling it up with guests ; 
which will make it all right for us.^ And the minister said 
of course he would contribute to the church, and give a lift 
on the schools; and naturally his guests would do something 
too. It did not occur to them that this man might have dis- 
covered that the increasing push of machine-run public-con- 
cerns, rather hindered people from attending to their private 
family business; and increasingly resulted in that neglect 
of the individual and family development which seemed in- 
creasingly to tend to fill insane asylums, criminal courts and 
hospitals while disintegrating Homes! 

Certain it was, Mr. Konnyngscrown was moving forward 
with the alacrity of one who meant to solve for himself the 


Who Builds ? 


103 


problem, 'how to build/ But he well knew, (as another 
educator has said) The law of all things is continuity; and 
that there are, and can be, no abrupt beginnings; no rude 
transitions and no todays not based on yesterdays. 

The concentration of his interest in the work before him 
for the people in hand, made it to him, quite as if he were 
in a desert, as far as lack of conspicuous interest and asso- 
ciation with the people of the town was concerned. 

And there was abundant town comment on this fact. For 
the house was now up, furnished and occupied, and the two 
men-servants there, (brought from afar by Konnyngscrown) 
were accustomed to him, his ways and wants: and seemed 
like two wound-up clocks, which, being fetched and put in 
place, went on ticking, unobservant of changed location. 
So well arranged thus far, was Mr. Konnyngscrown's machinery. 


One day Geraldine sprang out on Ishtar exclaiming, — 
"Now then Missie! Old Konnyngscrown is a magician; 
an alchemist. And never, at the peril of your life, do you go 
into that laboratory again. For I looked in there, quietly 
one day, and there he stood with a terrible blaze, green, blue, 
and red, curling up out of a saucer of water. And what do 
you think he had in it? A large old copper cent! And he 
was turning it into gold — gold! He is an alchemist. He has 
'fled to these wilds away from justice and he puts you off 
with goody-goody talk about 'service to the age you live in.^'' 
"It was not water; it was aqua fortis (a water very strong) 
and it would burn the skin off an ignorant meddler. So the 
ignorant must be protected by the wise from meddling with 
what would hurt, if mismanaged!^’ 

"Pah!” 

"And the proof is, that that aqua fortis ate right into that 
copper cent, swallowing up into itself all the copper it could 
take in. And in the chemicalization — ” 

"Prig,” 

— "the beautiful gases arose, and the fluid then left in the 
saucer was a solution called copperas.” 

"But,” said Geraldine, "that was not anything. The water 
was just to throw away. It was done to change that cent 


104 


Who Builds ? 


into a twenty-dollar gold piece. That is how he makes his 
money. That's what he get so rich at doing. He grabs after 
cents and uses them, to turn into twenty-dollar gold pieces! 
That's a crime. That's use-ury; and I heard him say him- 
self that it was alchemy." 

‘‘Oh" answered Ishtar, “when he was showing me how 
to do it, he said, ‘knowledge was a divine alchemy for turn- 
ing suffering into ease, and sorrow into joy.'" 

“Showing you how to do what, make gold?" 

“No, — how to take a little of that prepared copperas in 
water and dip the end of a linen rag in it, and slough off that 
poor dog's proud flesh, and, — " 

“You mean that proud dog's poor flesh! For I saw the 
horrid thing wagging and lapping your hand, as proud as a 
turkey cock at coming up to our house. And, his flesh was 
poor enough. Ugh! You've no business inviting such dogs 
up to the Landseer — " 

“That is the Konnyngscrown-house. And the meanest 
and the finest creature in the world he says, shall be the better 
for that house. At any rate, after I swi'ped out all the proud 
flesh he laughed and said, ‘Why should mortal flesh be 
proud?' — then afterwards the poor dog went away proud; 
but he didn't come proud. But he did, very proudly bring 
here the next day, just such another poor dog, and that dog 
belonged to lame old Peter Ramsey. And he said that there 
was a bright little cripple feller who would be that proud if he 
could have such treatment as the dogs had got. For, — but 
I must go away now," said Ishtar suddenly leaving Geral- 
dine, for once, so confused at this complicated use of the word 
‘proud' that she didn't concern herself as to where Ishtar 
was going. 

The question, “Why should mortal flesh be proud," be- 
wildered her from every point of view. But if she had followed 
Ishtar and had assisted at her next function as a social healer, 
the poverty of the proud flesh there would have seemed pa- 
thetic. 

“It's no use" said the old woman, when Ishtar tried to ex- 
plain the mission on which Peter Ramsey's words had sent her. 
“The boy's just dyin' an' it would be a mercy too, poor lad." 


Who Builds ? 


105 


no, he must not die, there is no good in that. He^s 
not grown yet. His body is not a good servant. It moves 
slow, but he thinks fast, and — ’’ 

“Servant! He^s no servant. He's me own little sister's 
child" (with untold tenderness she said it). “Shure I'd not 
be grindin' down that bit of a spalpeen." 

“I mean that body — " 

“He's not dead thin, that you should be callin' him a body!" 
exclaimed the proud old woman angrily. “You're the little 
Landseer girrul now ain't yer? You're a foine family, but 
moighty quare, some how! I do be wonderin' at ye cornin' 
inter a person's house an' callin' the boy ‘a body' 'cause he's 
that pale." 

“Granny, she means roight, deed she does" said the boy. 
“It's a poor servant me body is. I'd rather be a corpse wid 
a wake over me then to stay in this body another year. So 
the little Landseer is wise enough in sayin' that." 

“How old are you?" said Ishtar mystified. 

“Eighteen years old. You may well be astonished; I have 
been worse than dead always, wid me helpless legs a'swingin' 
in the sun, an' with brawny fellows lookin' at me as they pass." 
Then with burning eyes fixed on her he whispered horribly, — 
“What did God do it to me /or.^" 

With bated breath she halted. She had never seen dis- 
ease till she saw the first neglected dog — then the other, and 
old Peter, and now this unsightly object. And this one wanted 
to know, ^^What God did it /or.^" 

The condition and the question were out of the range of 
her knowledge, wise little nine year older though now she 
was. So, with a swift turn to the practical point of his pres- 
ent desires she said, all-motherly, “What is it that you want 
to do. Honey? I will gladly do it for you — or find a way for 
you to do it." 

The tears, burning before near the surface of his eyes, welled 
over at the tone. 

“No, no, it is not for the likes of you to do it. Look ye! 
I am born to do it; yet I am born so that I cannot do it. Yet 
I am born just right for doing it." 

“Hoot, toot! Are ye crazy child? Talk sinse or they'll 
say that yer mind is worse than yer body." 


106 


Who Builds ? 


^^Then Granny they’ll be fools for sayin’ it. Phwat wou.d 
I be at all if I didn’t think? Phwat else is left of me? Let 
the fellows beglorify themselves with their fine big bodies; 
but there’s more of me than of them. For I’m reading and 
thinking all the days long. An’ it’s some of yer father’s books 
little Landseer, that set me to see that I’m born just right 
for doin’ what I can’t yet git about to git done. If I’d had 
money I’d — ” 

^‘Hoots’’ cried the old woman. Then in Celtic she muttered 
angry threats about beggin’ o’ bad English blood; and he 
answered angrily in the same language, while Ishtar inter- 
posed — 

Peter Ramsey said he wouldn’t take twenty dollars for 
his well leg. Let Mr. Konnyngscrown come and see you. He 
cured two dogs, and — ” 

^‘Hear that Granny! — she thinks he could cure another 
mangy cur; and” — 

Again Ishtar interrupted gravely, — ‘^And John, what you 
are born just right for doing you will certainly find a way to 
do.” And with luminous eyes she added — ^^Did my Landseer 
lend you the books you love?” 

“My Landseer” was a peculiar soubriquet in the mouth 
of the little daughter; and the old woman murmured, “It 
is proud flesh through and through.” 

“Oh, if it is proud flesh,” said Ishtar, “it can be washed 
with strong waters and become as the flesh of a little child! 
Come John, Landseer has not forgotten you. He chooses you 
now for the cause. It says at the entrance to the Master’s House 
you know, ^The workmen change, but the work goes on.’ 
You are to be one of us. You shall have more books and — 
and have Mr. Jerome.” 

“I shall have more books, and Mr. Jerome,” said John 
gazing after her. “She’s the master’s own image: and yet — 
She was a wee bit babe, in that great Tama’s arms, when Peter 
took me to see the pictures of Stonehenge: and Landseer 
lecturing to us gawks on ancient Druidical works and civili- 
zations. He was a good man and a useful. Granny, she 
says I’ll be well ! What will I be gettin’ then for a leg-stiff- 
ener: and I wid bones no better than a jelly-fish.’ 


Who Builds ? 


107 


When John Elton with the needs of an almost frenzied 
soul fettered in a pain-racked body had asked Ishtar why 
God had made him as he was, he had poured into her soul 
wrath at the woes which had accumulated in the children of 
peasant mothers who had borne what could not be braved. 

As an outcome of her questions concerning sufferings, she 
had hunted up accounts of the ^ Peasants’ war, ’ which Zschokke 
calls Hhe terrible scream of oppressed Humanity:’ and in- 
tuitively she had concluded that John had descended from 
the peasants whom (Konnyngscrown had told her) lived in times 
when Barons and Lords made havoc of righteous order among 
the daughters and brides of peasantry. Which last sentence, 
Tama had explained by saying, ^^Of course, unhappy mothers, 
have sick, deformed children.” 

In her further readings she came on the account of ^The 
League of Poor Conrad’ — and her nimble mind, remember- 
ing Tama’s words concerning ^The Heaven and Earth-League’ 
of Chinese Spiritual-Philosophy asked, why this Geague’ 
did not band in with the ^League of Poor Conrad,’ and keep 
all such sorrowing ones from 'being crushed back with no 
abatement of grievances ’ ? 

And out of all this study and search, she asked at last, 
"Who is that God who made John a mangy cur?” — ^to 
the astonishment of Konnyngscrown, who had not been privy 
to the rest of this research into the cause of the Miseries of 
Life. 

And Konnyngscrown, risking all for Truth said, "It could not 
have been the 'very God.^ I think it must have been the 
thing of which St. Paul spoke when he said of greedy-men 
'their god is their stomach’ which means everything glut- 
tonous, in short, not Brain and Spirit.” 

"But — but nothing to do with Mother Maie” said Ishtar 
in eager questionings. 

"Nothing,” said Jerome. "For Maie, Eve, Madonna (call 
divine Motherhood what you choose) is Wisdom: and 'her 
paths are peace: and her ways are Pleasantness.’” 

Just then a burly frog whose head was just a support for 
a mouth gashed across it and for a pair of goggle-eyes that 
seemed gazing abroad for something more to consume on it- 
self, tumbled across the path! "There,” said Jerome, "that 


108 


Who Builds ? 


is an image of the kind of thing, which Paul says is wor- 
shipped by some, who fill the world with disease and miser- 
able children. For bull froggery makes Mothers who have 
to obey, regardless of Reason or Right. To her next ques- 
tion: he halted before answering: — then said, “One way and 
another, no one very well knows how the matter got to be so 
bad or how to make it better. They say the coming little- 
Mother has now the work of setting things straight if she 
can find out how to do it, comfortably all round.’' Then, 
as if to turn it over to her full consideration he said, “There 
seems to be some misunderstanding. For Chrysostom 
(called, The silver-tongued-Chrysostom’) spoke of woman as 
^a necessary-evil’ — ^natural Temptation’ ^a desirable Calam- 
ity’ — ^a deadly fascination’ ^a painted ill.’ He also called 
her (this silver tongued-man) noxious animal’ and The 
mouth of Hell.’” 

At every turn Ishtar had drawn back till at the last, far 
apart from the speaker, with color surging again into her 
face, she sprang to him, exclaiming, “ ’Tis hate of this beast- 
brutery that stiffens my Mother so pale: and roars fights into 
Geraldine”: looking everywhere for a deliverer: then catch- 
ing herself back, covering her eyes, she cried: “Where then 
was Male, Minerva, Athene and all the Mother-genii? Why 
did they not send Serpents to eat the Froggy-things?” 

‘That, in a way, was just what they did do. The Serpen- 
tine-power of Wisdom, then as now, was at strife with Froggy- 
fashions. The Classics were full of stories of this strife, plain 
enough to those who can read as they run. The strife has 
always existed. Athene Minerva was in it.” 

With a sob of intense relief Ishtar gazed at the statue of 
that Goddess which stood near the house entrance, staff in hand : 
the sphynx-surmounted helmet on her head, and at her feet, 
the Serpent whose length encompassingly coiled about the 
steps already trod: as he raised jewelled-eyes to hers 
through whose fingers Jerome had passed a golden cord on 
which balanced the ‘Compasses and the Square,’ while above, 
descended a golden-eagle: bearing in his beak, the American 
Water-lily. 

Involuntarily Ishtar kissed the sandalled feet with that 
devotion to the Ideal which controlled women of the Achaian 


Who Builds ? 


109 


Republic and, that Egypt where at Sais, stood the veiled 
Isis, on whose pedestal is the legend : — am all that is” 
And with clasped hands Ishtar exclaimed, ^^Tell me! Tell 
me! How did Athene help men! I will do so too/' 

And Jerome, plunging in, now that he had begun, said cheer- 
ily, “Homer tells us, ‘she fed Achilles with Ambrosia!' And 
when Menelaus was having a very hard fight with Hector, he 
called out to her for help, and ‘she was glad that he prayed 
to her first.' And she gave him strength in his shoulders 
and in his limbs: and she gave him courage — of what animal 
do you suppose? 

“I am quoting from Ruskin" said Jerome, “who speaking 
of this said, ‘Had it been Neptune or Mars, they would have 
given him the courage of a bull or a lion. But Athene gave 
him the courage of the most fearless in-attack of all creatures : 
small or great. And very small it is: but incapable of terror. 
She gave him the courage of a Fly. ' " 

“A fiy?" repeated Ishtar. “Well, I know myself that 
you can hardly frighten them away, when they are in good 
earnest." 

“Hear what Ruskin says about it in ‘The Queen of the Air.' 
He says, ‘recent Science shows that a fiy is a minute symbol 
of Athene's power: proving that the flight and breath are co- 
ordinated : and that its wings are actually the forcing-pumps 
whose strokes compel thoracic respiration: so that it breathes 
and flies simultaneously by the action of the same muscles: 
and therefore can breathe the more vigorously the faster 
it flies. While says Omerod, in his Natural history of wasps, 
the air vessels supplied by many pairs of lungs instead of 
one pair, traverse the organs of flight in far greater number 
than do the capillary blood-vessels of our system; and give 
enormous, untiring muscular activity: and a rapidity of 
action measured by thousands of strokes in a minute: and 
gives an endurance measured by miles and hours of flight.' 
Think of that, Ishtar. What an outfit for a fighter, is such 
courage, endurance and speed-of-blow as that ? whether 
against mortal or Immortal foes. There is a subtile kind of 
fighting that man has to do in these days! And for it, 
they need Athene's gift of ‘courage like a fly.' 

“Hers was not the gift of brute-muscular strength: but of 


no 


Who Builds ? 


the strength which befits the Temple-of-the-Spirit of Breath: 
which, of old, stood opposite the Mount of Justice/^ 

‘ns she alive still?” cried the little maid, with hand pressed 
to heart in adoration. 

“She is (as much as ever she was) ‘Queen of the Air,’” 
said Konnyngscrown, “and the make-up of the fly’s mechan- 
ism is a symbol of hers — and, perhaps, of yours!” 

“Oh come then! Let’s have people come in from every- 
where; and put in the Key of Intelligent Labor; and we 
will give them courage to workj which is a ‘ fight for bread. ’ 
I heard a man say so.” 

“They are coming right along,” said Jerome, as through 
the door came the words, “The boy couldn’t sleep the night: 
for thinking of what the little Landseer said. He wants ter 
know why God made him lame?” said Peter, advancing with 
the little cripple in his hard rolling cart: just as the ubiquitous 
frog tumbled across the path adorning the tale which Konnyngs- 
crown at once told, while Ishtar went for a chair for the shriv- 
elled form. 

“The nerve-substance is lacking in your brain and brawn, 
John: so much so that, if, in your last incarnation, you had not 
gotten tired of your old destructive ways, and had not gotten 
very sick of them — you would not in this incarnation have 
gained admittance to the heart of the fine little mother, who 
consented to bear you! Whatever has been in the 'past — you 
were this time born with aspirations for better things. Now 
then, remember what David said, when he cried out, ‘He restor- 
eth my soul. My cup runneth over!’ There’s the science of 
it. When your cup of brain-substance is full: keep it there: 
and then it will run over like the oil on Aaron’s beard, and 
permeate every nerve of your being.’ So that if you think 
wise and righteous-TnouGHTS all the time, your thinking- 
processes (sometimes better called ‘prayers’) will build you up 
to be as fine as the Thoughts are.” 

Then taking John up in his arms, he carried him to the 
strawberry-plot, to more fully talk to him of the matter. 

The Acre, divided into fourths, had three fourths been given 
to Ishtar, Frantze and Geraldine; while the last portion was 
called ‘the mother’s garden.’ But the mother had not cared 
for too great familiarity with this business: and her inat- 


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111 


tention to it had decided Geraldine against the affair. While 
Frantze, who had many concerns pressing on his attention in 
these days, still objected to working so hard for what ‘only 
cost^ this sum or that. 

“A few more days and these fruit growths will be swamped 
in weeds, said Konnyngscrown, pointing toward a portion of 
the ground. 

“You let my pig-weed alone Ishtar,^’ said Geraldine. “It 
is my garden: and if I choose, I can pull up the berries and 
make way for the weeds. See here!’' and she began tramp- 
ling most viciously through the vines. 

“Oh! little Miss!” said Peter with a gardener’s tenderness 
for plants. 

“They are hers,” said Jerome. 

“But surely not to destroy,” said the gardener. 

“To do with as she will,” was the answer. 

Then when no one interfered, Geraldine, fancying Konnyngs- 
crown expected her to emphasize some theory, halted with 
head thrown back, looking out under long lashes nearly laid 
down over her eyes with a bewildering smile, impossible to 
describe. 

He threw out his hands, staggered and fell. 

The gardener and Frantze helped Jerome away: and as John, 
sitting in his chair heard Geraldine say, “What made him 
drop? What’s the matter with you all?” he answered, “You 
are the matter,” — getting from the vanishing Ishtar the words, 
“No one speaks so to my sister: Geraldine Ariosto-Rhoen- 
steine Landseer!” — as hand in hand with her, they left John, 
where lessons had come upon him, thick and fast. 


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CHAPTER VII. 

THE ORDINATING OF SOME KINDS OF VALUE. 

T he next year it was announced that Ishtar had cleared 
$225. from the berries grown on her portion of ground, 
over and above the wages of the berry-pickers and the cost 
of crates and baskets etc. 

Geraldine did her best to find cause of discontent: but it 
was impossible to forget that over two years (about a fourth 
of Ishtar^s life) had been given to the work. 

The first year Konnyngscrown and she (Ishtar would have 
told you,) had had absolute regard to the requirements of 
the vines : and, not allowing a berry to mature, no strength had 
been dissipated in premature growths nor had weeds drained 
from the earth life-forces that could have been appropriated 
by the expected strawberry. Yet the fact remained that 
with Geraldine^s neglected garden close to Ishtar’s, the weeds 
therefrom had been exhaustive. And though, when she had 
expressed her wish to to Hake care of Geraldine^s garden also,^ 
she had been warned, that Law, as it rules over neighboring 
properties would count it intrusion for her to meddle with 
anything except what fell over the line, yet she pulled up 
weeds, saying, she did it to protect her own garden. And 
though she thus secured to Geraldine a row of developed 
fruit, still Jerome told her again, it would be consid- 
ered a legal trespass on the land of another. And to her 
surprise that Law should be allowed to prevent one person 
from doing good to another, she was told, that the right of 
persons to use private judgment concerning private affairs 
is (according to the American constitution) inherent in the 
individual: but that the attainment of Individuality was a 
matter on which much hinged: awakening her question, “Have 


Who Builds ? 


113 


I attained it?^^ To which Jerome answered, ‘‘That is for 
you to prove/' 

Then Geraldine, as one who would finish the discussion, 
came to the front, saying, am an individual. And I choose 
to not have strawberries." And precipitating what followed, 
Ishtar said very slowly and fierily: 

choose to have strawberries! I should like to choose to 
own your land all away from you: so as to have a great many 
more strawberries," invoking Geraldine's reply, “But I might 
choose to own all yours away from you, so as to tear up your 
berries and plant my pigweed there instead," antagonistically 
directing her words toward Konnyngscrown as toward one, 
who was setting up a regime where only her Mother was to 
reign. And he, with a look at her of which he was not fully 
conscious, said. 

But the Arbiter of conditions appears to have chosen 
that while little persons are young and are getting on to grow 
wiser, they are not owners of land! Those who are supposed 
to be wiser, own and control it until little girls are eighteen 
years old and boys, are twenty-one. By that time, they 
average to have found out that ^choosing land away' from 
others, does not settle the case. But that this has to be 
settled by ^mutual agreement' and a legal transfer, made 
because of ^ Value received.'" 

Naturally enough the introduction of this antagonistic 
strain, greatly invigorated and intensified the interest of the 
search into the affair. As was evident by the new poise of 
Ishtar's head and the darkening of her eyes, as she asked, 

“Did my mother receive value for transferring that land 
to me?" 

Then came out the fact that it had not been transferred, 
might never be — ^but that the use of it permitted to her, had 
resulted in her receiving from it a value roughly estimated 
at the $225 gold dollars which Jerome had taken care to have 
handsomely piled up, illustrative of the consummation of one 
step in this ^ kinder^ and strawberry gardening. 

These pretty piles of little gold affairs, he called Hokens' 
of the rough estimate of values received from Ishtar's 
two years' work; and went on to show that, beside this, her 
work had helped her helpers to receive similar tokens of the 


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other kind of value (called labor) which they had given her; 
without which she would have found it as difficult to have 
gotten her share of gold dollars, as would the basket and crate- 
makers to have gotten their share for making those baskets 
and crates, the receiving of which from them had helped her 
to nicely get her berries away to market. 

^^Yes! Yes!” said Ishtar, ^^and then, too, there were the 
wagon men and car men who gave me values and got in 
return, some money tokens! How nice it is to farm! We 
have such good times giving each other values. Tor values 
received^ I love to pay.” 

^^Hear her brag!” ejaculated Geraldine amazed at the out- 
look; adding, ^^But the land was not yours! So what right 
had you to pull strawberries out of my mother^s land? And 
what are you going to do with all those dollars that you got 
out of my mother’s land?” 

‘^The dollars did not come out of the land; they came out of 
the United States mint; and miners got the gold to make them, 
out of the mines. Nothing but strawberries came out of 
the land. They are mine, though we all helped put them in 
and only coaxed them to come out we did not pull!” 

“That is so” said Frantze. “The strawberries were new 
values received from Nature’s treasure-house. Ishtar coaxed 
them out and circulated the business results of doing it. You 
and I, Geraldine, left them in and have circulated nothing.” 

Ishtar following the idea, ejaculated, “So many persons 
seem to be in it. I see, I only just barely and recently did a 
share and got a share. But who began it? I guess those 
plough-men began it when they ploughed that day so hand- 
some! long ago! No: it was not they; for some one first must 
have made the ploughs and harnesses; yes, and besides, 
somebody made the little plants grow and brought us those 
^values’; for we could not have started a garden without 
them. I wonder if all the helpers have had their share, and who 
began it. Of course, it was the Great Worker, that ^worketh 
hitherto to will and to do of his good pleasure’; through every 
person and every-thing, helped some to make possible these 
strawberries, and these pretty gold affairs which I can now 
give in exchange for anything that anybody else chooses to 
give me in exchange for them.” 


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115 


'^Who told you all that?^^ said Geraldine. 

“Good Jerome/’ said Ishtar, “and besides, it’s common 
sense; and mother says so and I say so. For value received 
I love to pay, but, I do not know that I have paid every one 
yet. Who began it?” 

“ Konnyngscrown thought it and planned it, and came 
way over from England and Germany to help fix it,” said 
Frantze. 

“No,” said Geraldine, “Adam first thought it long, long ago.” 

“No,” said Ishtar, “the Being who thought to make Adam, 
must have began it.” 

“Of course!” said Geraldine, looking victoriously at Jerome 
as at one, vanquished. 

“Why are you so ugly to Konnyngscrown?” whispered 
the lad. 

“Well, why does he look at me then in that tone” she mut- 
tered. 

Frantze himself wondering, as he had often before, answered 
nothing, and Geraldine turning to Ishtar said: — 

“What are you going to do with the money that you got 
for the strawberries which you and Adam and all those, 
got out of my mother’s land?” 

“It is taxes already! And those taxes were owed two 
months, and once there was a person who owed taxes, and 
other persons came and took away the house for values which 
the man that owned the house had received but had not paid 
for.” 

This climaxed it. For Geraldine never had forgotten the 
time when her mother had said, ‘we are beggars,’ and that 
beggars were things like them, hiding away to starve, and 
had asked her what she was going to do about it? The time 
when she had answered she was going to make them all 
great. She now saw she had not seized on the relation of 
this charming garden play to certain conditions which 
must be met in order to keep the Landseer family from 
being so small as to leave taxes unpaid; and so small, as to 
fail of freely giving back their share to keep up streets, schools 
and public health conditions for all concerned; especially 
(as her mother had recently said) for those who had not ‘to 
their credit that accumulated faculty of skill, health and 


116 


Who Builds ? 


energy, which is the real wealth of those who are inherently 
wealthy/ 

This statement had brought them all to regard the ac- 
cumulation of skilled-health and energy as the wealth which 
may be called ^ personal-credits ' in that it sets those who are 
possessors of that accumulation far above the reach of that 
carking care concerning little misadventures; the guarding 
against which, torments less truly self-composed wayfarers. 

Geraldine accepted this as explanatory of the qualities and 
possessions inherent to the Landseers! But it did not divert 
her mind from the perplexities which Hhat 'person^ (namely 
Konnyngscrown) cost her. ^^He acts as if he belonged here. 
Besides, think how he fainted that day? Of course, he has 
something to do with trouble,^ she whispered to Frantze. 
But she got no help from him or elsewhere. As a result, she 
settled her mind to doing as she chose, without consulting 
others. 

Meanwhile Ishtar learned several facts concerning what 
seemed to her to be poverty of an easily removable sort. The 
motto carved in the lintel of the spacious entrance door, 
^We ask nothing of society but to serve it’ had assumptively 
related the house and her, as she thought, to general social 
usefulness; and to the particular fact, that there were sev- 
eral practically unoccupied rooms in that house. 

For the last two years her plans had all been carried out 
by the assistance of her mother and Mr. Konnyngscrown. 
True, they did not work together, but she worked with each 
of them, and each of them, with her, as she acutely discov- 
ered. Now she stated to Konnyngscrown her plan of having 
Janet and another little berry picker and weeder, come and 
live at her house; so as to be on hand for help, ^^and so as to 
share Hhe value’ of you, Jerome dear; and of our library, 
and, our beautiful talks, and sunsets! 

‘^For I tell you, if nobody is going to take care of the rest 
of the garden, I will take it over and begin fixing it for the 
autumn, so as to exchange four times as much value for four 
times as many helpers. And I will ask the gold mines, and 
United States mint-men to make me four times as many of 
those pretty dollars for my use next year. It would be better 
for Janet to live right by me, where she can read what it says 


Who Builds ? 


117 


on the lintel of our 'Master^s House/ and get used to it. I 
shall ask them to come today and begin. 

Then Jerome had to remind her that she had no house, and 
that it was chiefly the privilege of those who, by their own 
exertions got the wherewithal to help others, to do so. But 
that even then, the question how to do it permanently, was 
not easily settled. Then he added to the facts which she 
already knew concerning the debit items, several other facts 
which brought her to see that, when she had paid out $125 for 
taxes, that then, the added cost of dressing, ploughing and 
planting the land and the interest on the money invested had 
caused, what she had supposed to be ^ a balance on the credit 
side of the equation,’ to dwindle beyond reckoning; show- 
ing her that, with the best of intentions it was not feasible 
to take on unmeasured expenses, before one had become 
self-supporting. 

Yet even amid the sudden arrest of the enlargement of her 
ventures, the effect of paying out of her earnings the $125. 
for taxes was, to produce in her a keen sense of her relations to 
those whom she now held responsible for good civic govern- 
ment; causing her as she walked, to inspect the conditions of 
streets, sidewalks, firemen and of the police. 

Finally as she could not remove Janet from her mother’s 
uncomfortable home into Mrs. Landseer’s more comfortable 
one, she called at the Selectmen’s office to explain that Janet 
was her most faithful berry picker, and that as children took 
after their parents, she was almost sure that Janet’s father 
was a man who would work well if the selectmen would give 
him work to do on the roads; and urged, that she wanted 
the father of her faithful Janet to do it so it would not come 
undone, in order that her next year’s taxes should go toward 
fixing up roads and sewers over in Hreland-town.’ Because 
if sick people kept poor, she wished to help make them rich 
by getting them well, and was sure they would be well quicker 
if the place were healthier. And further she urged that the 
people over there might use the unoccupied lands near their 
houses so that they could do as well with that land as she had 
done with her mother’s land. The man laughing, replied, 4t 
costs too much to begin.’ They would probably only make a 
mess of it. And when she told Jerome, he answered that 


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some people did not need land as much as enterprise. There 
is garden room there now/^ said he. ^^Janet^s brother John 
is sixteen years old. He thinks he cannot get work. You 
might lend him a spade for a season, lend it to him — and 
lend Janet some strawberry plants; lend them to her and see 
if they will sell their Time to themselves this season; and see 
if they will return the spade and plants after working at their 
land two years. Try and see what they will put into it and 
get out of it.’^ 

will,^^ said Ishtar. 

‘^But you will find it a tangle!” said Jerome. Habit 
is a master. It is probable they will get discouraged, and 
that other children, dogs, cats and ravagers generally, will 
be too much for the courage of the would-be gardeners. But 
try it, for if you find a family there who can manage them- 
selves in that community, you will find a style of helpers 
with grit and quality enough to trust later on, when you at- 
tempt co-operatively to home persons with you en famille. 
For that is a tremendous risk. Encroachment and a destruc- 
tive form of selfishness, averages to be the returns measured 
out to the generous soul who attempts anything like that. 
Let them begin it then on their own ground and among their 
own set; and those who can accomplish anything there will 
be fit to trust where otherwise, the sight of unprotected plenty 
comes near crazing the covetous, into theft. 

^^Yes, it sounds hard Ishtar, but it is fact. Therefore 
when people do not do their duty to the soil, it seems better 
on general principles and for the best public good, that the 
land should fall into the hands of more creditable persons. 
That is, persons who latently possess the accumulative-fac- 
ulty incident to a pre-existent practice of pure energy and 
persistence. Land usually does so fall; for the poverty of 
the poor, as your mother so critically says, is frequently their 
poorness of blood, brain and general constituency.” 

^'My mother is right” said Ishtar. ^‘But are the Landseers 
doing duty by this place?” 

“A business man might say it did not pay for investment.” 

‘^What are investments?” 

This, Jerome went on to answer; counting up ordinary 
items as reckoned in the money market, and then he added, — 


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119 


'^But there is here invested and is here at stake, one thing 
which some business men might forget to state; that is, all 
the happiness which your mother gets out of life. Her hap- 
piness is staked on the retaining and increasing of a specifi- 
cally creative home for you all. And I think, is staked on 
a creditable carrying out of the motto carved over the lintel 
of the door.^^ 

guess no one would better touch my mother^s property!’^ 
said Geraldine, white to the lips. 

*^Mr. Konnyngscrown will fix it for us,^’ said Frantze com- 
fortingly. 

gasped Ishtar, thought I was going to tell every- 
one to come right in and engage with us to do wonders. What 
has happened to my brightness? Now I haven’t any 
earth, and Janet has none. My Intelligence and Will got out 
of the earth $225 worth of value, and Frantze’s intelligence 
and will left in his share, and so did Geraldine leave in hers, 
and my mother left in her share. But it is my mother’s land, 
and I have none, and Janet has none, and the gladness is 
all gone. Is it not every one’s duty that the soil should be 
tilled?” 

^‘Some persons think so,” said Jerome. 

'^Well, my mother won’t till it, and these children won’t, 
and Janet’s father won’t till his little piece, so I think it is 
for the public good that this land should fall. I would catch 
it gladly.” 

‘^That’s what the world is pretty generally coming to think,” 
said Jerome, charmed at her ratiocinations. 

'Hf your mother chooses, you can pay her $24 a year for 
the rent of that quarter of an acre; and then have the profit 
of all you clear above your further investments.” 

would rather buy the whole acre for $300. I love 

land.” 

^Ht’s vulgar to be moneying all the time,” said Geraldine. 

Nevertheless she watched with keen appreciation the re- 
sult of the outworking of the principle of meum et tuum as 
applied to the relations of civilians; among whom Konnyngs- 
crown reckoned Ishtar. 

In the end, for her encouragement, a bill of sale of that acre 
was made out, transferring it to Ishtar for value received; 


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Who Builds ? 


which value was in part the balance left over on that yearns 
money transactions. 

With amiable readiness the little girl let Mr. Konnyngscrown 
remit whatever balance might be due him, saying, ^‘Because 
that will help me the sooner to help Janet; so that she can 
hire the little piece of land next her house and do, with her 
brother's help, as well as we did here last year.’^ 

It w’as interesting to see, how land-owning, that firmest 
of social bonds,’' that most potent of patriotic inspirations,” 
laid hold on Ishtar. She felt wonderfully strengthened in 
her social relations when she found herself a land-holder. 
But in discussing the way to save the many children for whom 
this child now felt distinctively responsible, Ishtar said, — with 
passionate energy, — ^'If I were the All-Power, I’d make 
people choose right and not let them ruin their children so.” 

Would you? To make them choose right would be to 
take all choice away from them! And to take choice away, 
would be to turn them into machines. It would not create 
them ^self-creators.’ The constant exercise of choice makes 
character. Strength of Will comes from battling against 
everything which hinders one from carrying out the dictates 
of wisdom. It costs much every way to grow a soul. Its 
roots must be deep and far extended if its boughs are to be 
lofty, broad and beneficent. The tree of soul-life is like the 
elm tree which we had such work in uprooting when we 
put up this house on the spot where it stood, — and which, 
was as wholesome in its unseen depths as it was in its grand 
out-spreading visibility.” 


About this time Geraldine fell very ill with the wear and 
tear of her misoccupied nature. All the family, she, excepted, 
had defined purposes to fulfill. Mrs. Landseer’s long nights 
were now blessed with holy sleep and her industrious days 
with swiftly carried out mental inspirations. There was how- 
ever that about Geraldine’s future which caused Mrs. Land- 
seer to look at the child in the way which kept alert and 
alarmed her curiosity. This, added to the difference be- 
tween Konnyngscrown’s carriage toward her and toward Ishtar, 
as they companioned together, tended increasingly to isolate 


Who Builds ? 


121 


Geraldine. Besides, Frantze had been away with Jerome on a 
trip connected with his taking the ^degree’ of Louveteau; and 
that had privately stirred up Geraldine to stand alone, as if 
against others. For she had hunted up the word ^^Louveteau,^^ 
in a French dictionary, discovering thus that it meant ‘ young 
wolf.^ Which discovery reminded her of a ghastly Hartze- 
Mountain story, in which a were-wolf * figured, part of the time 
as man, and part of the time as a wolf whose agonies in strug- 
gling back to man-form and man-mind (after nights spent in 
wolfish fury and ravage) filled her with excruciating pity for 
Frantze; whom she imagined was now called upon to endure 
like wolfish experiences as he went through these metamorphic 
changes. 

She read and reread the vivid story; understanding it so 
far as to agonize over it to the point of feeling that she must 
find some way to bear with Frantze his sufferings, as well as 
to share with him the honors of the attainment of what would 
(she was sure), result in making him to be more than man. 

She realized that a marked change had passed over Frantze; 
big-brained, nerve-strained and rapidly ageing boy as he was 
now becoming. The impress made on him was one which 
aroused Geraldine, setting her eyes aflame with horror and 
ambition to participate in the spirit of self-sacrifice which, 
in very truth had been lighted in Frantze^s being, never to 
be extinguished. 

With head well set back on her handsome young shoulders, 
she became self-poised and antagonistic in appearance till 
with sudden outburst of caresses and hysterical outcries of 
heart-hunger, she flung herself into the arms of busy Tama, 
or poured out to Mrs. Landseer, unintelligible alarms, concern- 
ing which, when questioned, she could explain nothing. Dis- 
turbed and distressed as Mrs. Landseer was at this state of 
things, she yet had to leave the child (much as she herself had 
been left) to struggle through these mental growths and 
distresses while she read, and re-read books, like Bulwer’s 
‘^Zanoni,^’ and “A Very Strange Story^^; and the stories in the 
World^s Bibles portraying as they did, conflicts between outer 
and inner realms of character — such as those which the oft- 

* A man turned into a wolf. “ There be some that eat children and men ; and 
eat none other flesh from the time that they be a’ charmed with human flesh.” 
M.S.Bodli564. 


122 


Who Builds ? 


quoted ^^Glyndon^’ passed through: stories of occult develop- 
ment, which had made so large a part of the Landseer children's 
tragedy plays, and were so large a part of their mental enter- 
tainment and pabulum. 

To this transitional, brain-racking stress and strain, Kon- 
nyngscrown^s propinquity contributed. For by this time, 
his every thought of Geraldine identified her with the very 
presence of a woman whose life had helped to make his a 
tragedy, as his life, had, hers. He thought he saw in Mrs. 
Landseer^s manner toward Geraldine, that which was peculiar 
enough to warrant almost any conclusion relative to their 
relationship. 

Geraldine had some hint of his thought about the matter, 
and she knew that he had questioned Tama about the date 
of her birth, but did not know that it was the same as that 
of the child for whom he was looking. To Geraldine it was 
enough that there were mysteries in the air; for she under- 
stood that these, were held temptingly above our ignorance 
for solution by our wits. Meanwhile Konnyngscrown was 
clinging to the fact that Lamed’s old philosophy of a ‘reason- 
able Christian service^ included such a use of inherent power 
as actually results in converting a passional-man into a ra- 
tional man: and, in due time, in refining these firmly-fash- 
ioned rational-faculties to that spiritized-quality of percep- 
tion and reception, that makes a thus ‘refined’ being, really 
to be at-one-with-divine-po wer ! 

He doubted if all that greatly advanced attainment had yet 
been realized in that house: seeing there had been more 
children born than there were now living. And for his part, 
he considered the birthing of children for burial, should have 
had no part in the Ariosto-philosophy. He was becoming 
greatly irritated. Mrs. Landseer’s excessive seclusion gave 
him to feel that Archibald’s loss might have been very, very 
bitter to her. Yet, the never ceased-smart of that stroke 
across his brow, had (like the sword-stroke of a sovereign 
on a kneeling knight) now united him in a fealty to the giver 
of it ; burdening him interiorly with ties, stronger than uttered 
vows always hint at. Ties, which among other things bur- 
dened him with a necessity to relieve his mind, by telling her 
that that stroke had but struck him up a road which he had 


Who Builds? 


123 


liked the better for being able to travel it without taking woman 
into consideration as an element of daily existence. 

Yet at times he had fairly longed to punish her for striking 
him as he had kneeled. 

But what could he do? He knew he before her serenity 
was but as an agent whom Free Masons in their fraternal 
way, had sent to do his best in the family of a deceased brother : 
where, also, was a young ward of their order. An agent, for 
whose help he believed Madame was and would be grateful 
if but he did not intrude on her need for isolation. That it 
was a real ‘need^ he believed. For he remembered his 
mother’s nature. But seeing he was really helpful to the 
Lady of the House, why should his occasional attempted- 
presence be so rebuffed and he, banished to the necessity 
of dealing with matters by using Tama as a medium of com- 
munication with Hhe Madame’ ? 

He prodded the earth with his stick as he went bowling 
across the field: thinking of the time when he went up to 
London as new to the discussion of high philosophies as he 
was to the discussion (much less the practice) of the brutal- 
isms stated in Bailey’s ^Festus\' which taught that Hhe 
safety of the higher passions lay in the exhaustion of the 
lower.’ A philosophy of Life which (so his great Mother had 
taught him) resulted in diabolizing — instead of divinitizing — 
one’s nature and the nature of one’s progeny. 

Glancing over the stretches of high land and the vales 
below, with his eyes coming back to the ^Master’s House/ 
a stanza of Browning’s ‘Pauline’ laid hold on him! And he 
told himself, if ever he should again converse with Lamed 
Ariosto-Rhoensteine-Landseer, as friend with friend, it would 
not be his lot to say of any part of his life, 

H had been spared this shame had 1 sat 
^By thee forever from the first, in place 
^Of my wild dreams of beauty and of good; 

*Or with them, as an earnest of their truth. 

*No thought nor hope having been shut from thee, 

^No vague wish unexplained, no wandering aim 
'Sent back to bind on fancy’s wings and seek 
'Some strange, fair world where it might be law. 

'But doubting nothing, had been led by thee 
'Through youth, and saved, as one at length awaked, 

'Who has slept through a peril. Ah! 

Vain, Vain!’ 


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Who Builds ? 


Then he wondered if Mrs. Landseer mind could have 
become stultified, as so many minds by misery do become. 
Was it that she, but in youth had been: — 

‘Full of those dreams which vainly grand 

‘Haunt the young mind. Proud visions of mankind 

‘Of men to gods exalted and refined,* 

and did she now but consider them to be 

* False views like that horizon’s vain deceit, 

‘Where heaven and earth alas! but seem to meet?* 

He had not thought the mortal man lived who could have 
turned the Ariosto-Rhoensteine Prophetess, into a mere 
patcher of family clothes; when society at large needed so 
much more valuable patching. Or was it that while she 
patched she was intelligently wishing-forward that now adjust- 
able conflict; the rights and wrongs of which had filled with 
romanticism the blood of both sides of her family, when, as 
Guelph in Germanic Confederations, and as Ghibelline in 
Verona they had of old, met — hand to hand and brain to 
brain — to fight it out? For if Browning was right, the fight 
was over Hwo principles which each lives fitly, by its repre- 
sentative.^ 

Bored and restless, with hurrying steps Konnyngscrown 
wondered what he had come to this dull town for. Then he 
told himself the dullness was the best part of it. Because he 
would have sought stillness somewhere in any case ; quoting, — 

‘ naught 

‘But the still life that I led apart once more, 

‘Which left me free to seek soul’s delights, 

‘Could e’er have brought me thus far back to peace.” 

Then he said to himself, 

^^It is for the sake of children of two brother masons that I 
came here. Mrs. Landseer is right. With them, my business 
begins and ends. The need of the world at this human crisis 
is my only concern.’’ 

Yet as he neared the end of the house he became again 
angered at the treatment he was getting; and, with a thud of 
his stick, he ejaculated, ‘^Blessed be a Good Forget!” which 
the needle-swinger, over his head, heard: and, thinking ^No 


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125 


form of forget can be blessed’ — looked full into the eyes which 
at that moment he raised upward. 

And he? He felt as if she purposely had taken him at a 
disadvantage and, waiting in ambush, had stolen a chance to 
look into his soul. And there came over him a frenzied dread 
of the help he needed. Help (which he knew or thought he 
knew) could come to him only from one who contained within 
self the ‘sexual contrast’ which he believed the real Human 
nature in its highest refinement does contain. 

His knowledge of the last secret which mystics hold, led him 
to ask whether, this woman had hold on that source of ^ au- 
thoritative-intelligence ^ which invests the Spiritual Androgyne 
with an infallibility, known only to an ego who has become 
sovereign of the Innerving Faculty? 

Then, with wrath at her (he knew not why or whence) he 
went bowling along into the forest glades, till he was suddenly 
halted by the sight of Ishtar asleep with her head on a book 
which rested on Geraldine’s knees. With finger on lip per- 
emptorily she, silencing him, arrested his advance. With 
mock obedience, he seated himself on a fallen-tree trunk, 
while feeling as perplexed and dissatisfied with his past Work 
as he was conscious of being unprepared for any wiser move- 
ment! And why? Why “exactly” (he told himself) “because 
of the unsolved element of the problem which element Geral- 
dine, in all probability, represents.” 

The air was filled with the fragrance of the pines whose 
feathery tops breathed a lullaby to every living thing. The 
lazy chirp of the sun-filled birds alone broke the stillness. 

He decided to get from Geraldine the information regarding 
herself which her elders would not give. He was eager in his 
wish, and his look was eager and magnetic; and his thought, 
“She can tell and she shall tell” — transferred to her as he 
looked at Geraldine formulated itself in her mind “He can tell 
me what I want to know and he shall do it.” And easing 
Ishtar’s head to the ground she approached slowly, curi- 
ously halting. Then she came nearer, trembling with the 
forces of her intellectualized-will-to-know that which, did she 
know it, would enable her to ‘utilize present circumstances’ 
or show her if she must assume new ones as the command 
to do, had come down to the young Landseers. 


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Her purpose was as defined as these words present it. Her 
red lips pouted in a petulant, combative expression, and her Ino- 
like eyes full of powerful intentions glowed forth under the shag 
of curly black hair which fell across her forehead boy-fashion. 
The set of her head as she came steadily on seemed full of the 
forces of past lives and deeds which enspiritizing the man, made 
his purpose rebound upon himself. Till now, not that forest 
scene, but another, in another land rolled out before him; and, 
coming to meet him (he a youth and she, Hhe Rhododendron of 
TrebizondO a vision of the past advanced with Geraldine into 
the present. 

He was conscious that Ishtar had arisen and had moved 
homeward. That, he mentally saw while he was emotionally 
deluged in this flowing together of past and present scenes. 

“^The Rhododendron of Trebizond whose flowers bees feed 
on and whose honey drives men mad^!^^ he said, unwittingly 
repeating what he had thought at the time which this scene 
reflected. 

‘^Bees sting,’’ said Geraldine swiftly. 

'‘But only in self-defense as busy workers who sacrifice them- 
selves for the public good, must do, or be consumed. But sacri- 
ficial service must not count costs too closely, nor mind the 
stings of the crazy masses?” he incoherently added, pulling 
himself together. 

"Is Frantze going to do it for the crazy masses? Is he 
to have bees feed on him, you know?” 

"Who can tell what he can or will do! Sacrificial love is 
made of firmer stuff.” 

"Say that again,” she cried, down on her knees, beside the 
tree trunk, catching the words almost before they were fairly 
uttered. "You are disappointed in Frantze. I know more than 
he does. I am full of firmer stuff! O, you know it; you know 
it! Let me be what he can’t? Let me be your slave; but 
give me knowledge! Give me a chance for utilizing my cir- 
cumstances!” 

She clasped his knees. He pushed her away, trying to dis- 
engage himself. But, taking no rebuff, she flung her arms 
about his neck, and like a wild creature clinging to a last hope 
of life, cried, "Take me, teach me! I am to do wonders! 
Teach me, 0 teach me.” 


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127 


He rose to his feet, — struggling against her and himself; ex- 
claiming, — ^^Let me go! Do you want me to hurt you?’' — 
pushing her away as her mother had once done. And with 
the uncomprehending look of a dazed soul, her strained, hope- 
less eyes fixed on his, she stood aside uttering a weird moan. 

Trembling, he fell back, catching at the tree-trunk for a seat. 
She was on her knees before him, pressing close to keep him 
from leaving her with questions unanswered ; and, hating to be 
so hated, she kissed him, as she had kissed Frantze, hungry 
for soul support. 

Had he flung her to that distance? or had she jumped back 
from his cry, — ‘^It is the Rhododendron which drives men 
mad!” 

The look, the voice, the words were with her but the man 
had sped away. 

Baffled, broken hearted, full of chagrin which she could not 
analyze, she flung herself on the ground, tearing at it, alone 
in the woods whose mighty branches were now tossing wildly 
on every side. 

The long threatening storm-clouds were rolling up, phalanx 
on phalanx across the heavens. The sultry air gave way be- 
fore the tempest which now crashed through pines whose sway- 
ing branches back upffung the descending torrent which they 
met, maddened, as it and the wind hurtled upon them. This ex- 
ternal conflict but faintly pictured the storm within the cosmos, 
Geraldine. She sprang to her feet, intent on making that 
man suffer, as he, by ignoring her ability had made her suffer 
today — ^^Yes and always,” she told herself. 

She saw she had some advantage over him; and she had 
wished to use that advantage for his advantage. But he would 
not help her to use it. Very well then, she would know what 
was this vantage ground which, possessed by her gave her some 
power over the recesses of his soul! And then she would see 
what she would do with it. Something about her puzzled, 
perhaps alarmed him. Something about him puzzled her; 
and she thought it would be but simple and fair for each to 
explain self to the other. 

Geraldine was not contra-natural : but natural ; and she intu- 
itively expected Jerome to act naturally and simply and thus 
explain to her all that puzzled her in his manner. He had 


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not explained, but instead had run away from her as if he 
feared her; which fear-presence introduced a contra-natural, 
nay, a super-natural element, signifying to her the nearness of 
something uncanny. He had thwarted her desire to know 
all about everything; and had stolen Frantze away and was 
teaching even Ishtar, more than he had taught her. And 
now he had run away from her. She would follow him and 
find out everything! 

On that impulse she ran, never slackening her speed till she 
reached the other house. 

She had but entered the library in the storm-darkened 
shadows when she heard Mr. Konnyngscrown and Frantze 
come into the room. 

She sprang aside into the bay-window; and hidden in the 
folds of its heavy curtains she had but caught Frantze^s 
words of reply — as if to a rebuke — cannot help doing as 
Geraldine wants, — when there came an outburst, was it from 
Jerome? Did he call Frantze a pitiful whelp of a cur, a cow- 
ardly weakling? Could it be of her Jerome was speaking 
so white and wild? — Neither child nor deviF’ he said: — 
^^His own lost love come back to look out of those eyes at 
the wreck she had made! Not yet buriable beyond the power 
of doing more damnable deeds? Too lost for heaven, too 
beautiful for hell!’^ She was his, he had said. (How? 
Where?) “She had ruined him and dozens of others^' he 
raved. 

She clutched at the window curtain, stuffing it between 
her clenched teeth, while her straining sense caught at frag- 
ments of ideas with which she could not cope. 

“You idler, cowering and whining before temptation !^^ 
the man burst forth again, whether talking to himself, Frantze 
or others, who could tell? “You craven cur, throwing your- 
self under feet that you scorn for stepping on you when you 
are there !^^ 

He seized Frantze by the clothes and raising him aloft, 
held him there at arms' length, shaking him in the air, as with 
the suppressed passion of years he looked at him as at one 
who was but too slight to crush, while, 

“O my love! My lost love!" came the cry as, of a broken 
heart. And Geraldine shivered under the agony of it. While 


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129 


Frantze, pendent, but critical though bewildered, tensely 
listened as — 

Why shall she not give me back life for lost life? I believe 
she is mine! Before high heaven I believe she is mine! Yet 
I wait, I wait on my knees, watching what she may become 
of — Oh, my love; my love where are you, and where — ?” 

A flash lit up his face; and Geraldine quailed at the sight 
of the agony; as frenzied with incongruous doubt and dread, 
he revolved possibilities, and then burst forth again — 

‘^0, that there should be no power to avert seen evil! I 
am crippled. I do not know my ground. And you, foolish 
boy are free to ruin your fate, as she pulls you this way and 
that, by — not so much as a word, or a wish, but by — what? 
What accursed charm is it that robs fools like you of power to 
find self-balance ? 

^‘She will do it; she is fated to do it! She^ll have your 
souks blood! All you could give her of care and of worship 
would never satisfy her restless nature. Bolts and bars will 
never keep that creature, full of the fires of heaven and hell 
as she is — from working out her destiny! The Divine Spirit 
will not rob souls of choice! And you are doomed to choose, 
every step of the way. But you do not see the ghastly horror 
on the threshold before you!’' 

They were gone; and Geraldine left alone with her terrors 
dashed out into the darkness and struggled on through it 
and the storm, till gaining an unused entrance she crept up 
that stairway to her own room drenched with rain, and trem- 
bling with a chill as of death. 

Dread of Frantze, whose life she was fated to drain; fear 
of, and a thrilling horror for Jerome because of his loathing of 
her as of some unburiable horror something malignant before 
which the strong man quailed and wailed, overcame her. 
What was the wreck she had wrought, and when and where? 
Was she once in the grave? and was she now neither living nor 
dead? 

A flash of lightning filled the room, and Geraldine standing 
in the doorway, saw a horrid face with maniac eyes and reek- 
ing locks looking at her. It was, — it was the Dweller on the 
Threshold! The Horror come back to do more damnable 
deeds! Palsied she waited; — would it come again? Another 


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Who Builds ? 


flash — ! A thunder peal! It was there more livid than before; 
a horrible thing, fit neither for heaven nor hell. It was the 
Dweller on the Threshold and she told herself it was Ger- 
aldine Ariosto Landseer; and its kiss and her kiss were loathly 
things to drive men mad! 

With the courage of the conscience-free and the persistence 
of the critically superstitious she still strained her eyes — 
determined madly, if, but once again she saw it she would 
believe herself to be a doomed, poison-breathing thing, 
with its heart-cry — ‘^Kiss me my lover!’’ Would it come? 
Would it come? Her loud heart-throb drummed out the 
seconds as they passed. It would not come. She was not 
that horrible thing, because of which Jerome feared and 
fainted. Ay! A flash — ! The presence! It was there, and 
it was she! 

Then a shriek went up amid the noise of a crash, as if the 
eternal arches had fallen. 

The barn and two trees near by were struck by lightning, 
and in the alarm of danger every one discovered that no one 
else knew where Geraldine was. And search discovered her 
insensible, fallen at the entrance of her room, face forward 
toward the cheval glass opposite the door. 

For days she seemed to be on the verge of insanity. It was 
evident to everyone that Jerome Konnyngscrown was identi- 
fied with her ravings. Pity for him, and terror of him and of 
Frantze, with a determination to know the full facts of this 
whole matter, filled her utterances during the dementia of 
the fever which followed. 

^‘She doesn’t rave because she’s feverish. She’s feverish 
because she raves,” said Ishtar one day after watching Geral- 
dine. ^^And she raves because she hates to have Konnyngs- 
crown here, and because she has nothing to do and is no help 
to any one. Let me read you my American bible-book” (as 
they singularly enough called James of Scotland’s limited 
version) said Ishtar, turning suddenly to Geraldine who, 
strangely quieted was listening to what Ishtar had said, and 
waiting for what she would now read. 

^^'And behold a man of the company cried, saying. Master, 
I beseech Thee heal my child; for he is my only child. And 


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131 


lo a spirit taketh him’ (be still Gerry and see how peacefully 
this ends) Haketh him, that he foameth again, and bruiseth 
him, that he hardly departeth out of him. And I besought 
thy disciples to cast him out, but they could not.’ O listen 
Gerry, listen to this wonderful thing. If you cry out so you 
can’t hear,” said Ishtar interrupting herself, and laying 
one hand on the hot temples, while, too, she held the throbbing 
wrist as she read on, — ^ Jesus answered and said, — faith- 
less generation how long shall I be with you. Bring thy son 
hither.” And while he was yet a coming he threw him down 
and tear him,”’ 

^‘Who? Who threw who down?” said Geraldine com- 
batively. 

^^The evil spirit threw the boy down. The evil spirit always 
throws people down in the dirt, Gerry. He did it before the 
boy came near to Jesus. And now listen, — ^and Jesus re- 
buked the unclean spirit and healed the child, and delivered 
him to his father. And they were all astonished at the mighty 
power of God.’ That is because they were so little acquainted 
with God” said Ishtar. ^^I should be much astonished if that 
power were not mightier than the power of an unclean spirit 

‘^But,” said Geraldine, breaking in then with a shriek of 
self-fear. ‘^How came the devil (heref^^ She was up on her 
elbow looking about and thinking of the words, the name, 
Jerome’s pallid face, and her own encounter with the sight of 
herself which the lightning flash made more horrible, and with 
a terror on the verge of madness she shrieked, ^^I didn’t know 
any one but me had devils, or was devils! Oh! Oh! Oh! If 
the Lord owns everything I should think he might get up 
new girls without using over old devils!” 

Why Geraldine tell me, what do you think a devil is?” said 
Ishtar. 

Things like me” she said. '^Unburiable! That can’t stay 
in the grav-e!” she shrieked. 

"I don’t know what you can be thinking about” said Ishtar. 
"I only know it is not a nice word. And you can’t get any 
good out of it, fix it as you will. Devil. See, if you take 
the head off, — the first letter, it is evil. And if you decapi- 
tate it again it is vil, (or vile) and if you take the first letter 
off of that, all that is left if il, (or ill).” 


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Who Builds ? 


^^Just like me’’ said Geraldine shrieking. ^^You can’t fix 
me any way but what I am left something frightful, and then 
here I am ill.’' And she fell into a paroxysm of terror. 

Then Tama took the child into her large embrace, and rock- 
ing to and fro with her on her bosom, petted and soothed 
her and got out of her the whole story of all that had happened 
first and last, the afternoon and night of the storm. And at last, 
thought she had convinced the child that she had been fright- 
ened by her own shadow. 

^^No, no, I have seen it. It is I; I am it.” And with painful 
detail she gave the story of what she was sure was Hhe Dweller 
on the Threshold’ — the hideous spectre thing which she was 
sure had looked in at the window on her, with the glare of the 
lightning in its face. 

And Tama, and Mrs. Landseer and Ishtar showed her how, 
as she stood that night in her drenched white gown, clinging 
wet hair and terror-paled face, the flash of lightning had illu- 
mined her, throwing her refiection on the mirror opposite the 
doorway; so that the more perplexed she got, the more fright- 
ful she looked : — and afraid of her own shadow, she had fallen 
down insensible. 

But at this she only shrieked again, ^'If it is my shadow, I 
look that way; and that dead thing is I, and I am it, and 
Konnyngscrown says so!” 

Mrs. Landseer heard this with a horrible comprehension of 
it all. The story of the encounter in the woods and of Kon- 
nyngscrown’s terror and retreat and his subsequent, incoherent 
talk with Frantze in the listening Geraldine’s presence, was 
full to her of dire significance. She was herself so much shaken up 
by it, that after a consultation with Tama, Geraldine, through 
her sickness, was left chiefly in Tama’s now very tender care. 

Ishtar heard Tama one day say to Mrs. Landseer, Lamed, 
Missis, dear Missis; have it all out plain and square with Mr. 
Konnyngscrown. Tell him all yer know, and he will tell yer 
all yer want ter know, fair and square! An’ it’ll be better all 
’round ’specially for Gel’dine.” But both children heard the 
answer (as Lamed meant they should) ^^It cannot be done! 
I know the complications ! I’m the judge of the matter. She 
must get through the next years at home here as best she can. 
She being judge!’! 


Who Builds? 


133 

And so things remained. Jerome’s wild outburst in the 
library when he had held Frantze like a wisp in the air calling 
him the whelp of a cur, and all the rest of the mad harangue, — 
had not gone for nothing with that tender and intensely spir- 
ited boy. And when Geraldine, after her startling illness had 
turned from Frantze in abhorrence or alarm, or both, the 
boy’s cup of unhappiness seemed too full to carry. 

Frantze heard of comments made in the town over the con- 
ditions of things at the two houses. 

For over three years now, Konnyngscrown had sustained 
Frantze in freedom to choose his own way in everything. For 
Konnyngscrown had carried himself toward Frantze like a 
good comrade, neither forcing opinions on him nor controlling 
his conduct. Meanwhile giving him, who had so long had 
little or no spending money, plenty of it, that he might use it 
according to his judgment. Meanwhile he knew Frantze had 
fallen in with some of the worst boys of the place; and Mr. 
Konnyngscrown had been waiting for developments. 

He was sitting one evening before the grate-fire thinking of 
these things, when — 

“Here I am, all that’s left of me, and that is the whole quan- 
tity too much!” said Frantze bursting into the room, his face 
red and the hair damp on his forehead. “I’ve done with you, 
Konnyngscrown and all your notions. A cowardly weakling 
am I? Whining over temptation am I? I don’t whine any 
more old man, I’m just going ahead with the best of them! 
And you’re going to take it out of me and fix it up with Geral- 
dine are you? I’ll publish you, broad and far! What are 
you doing in the Landseer family any way? I’m the head 
of this family and I’ll let you know Geraldine is to be my wife. 
I suppose you know why she is raving as she is, about you? 
I tell you she is to be my wife. That was fixed by a better man 
than you are, and he wants you to get out of this! He’s had 
enough of you in his home. Have you shaken me in the air 
long enough, you big, mean giant of a bully? Get up on your 
feet. I don’t strike a man when he’s down. Up with you 
and I’ll pay off old scores and start in on a new account!’’ 
exclaimed the slender bit of a boy madness, seizing the man’s 
great shoulder and breathing fumes of brandy in his face. 

“When the brandy goes in, the hidden real man comes forth 


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Who Builds ? 


in self-exhibit, it is said,^^ thought Konnyngscrown. So he 
let Frantze talk on, doing nothing to divert him from turning 
his emotional nature and his logic concerning the matter all out 
fully; till the boy lunged onto a sofa and fell asleep. Presently 
Konnyngscrown covered him warmly and then turning out 
the lights left him to sleep for the night. 

It was early day-break when he heard Frantze arouse and 
go to the bath, whence came the sound of out-pouring faucets 
and the splashing of water in the tub. 

When they met at breakfast there was something of shame 
in Frantze^s manner but more of purpose than Konnyngs- 
crown had ever seen. Matters had transpired in the last few 
days that had brought the man of forty-five and the boy of 
sixteen together, not now as pupil and teacher but as man 
and man, when both meet on a lower plane than either had 
yet surmised the other ever occupied. 

Frantze felt assured that more ruffianism than he really ever 
possessed, had come out of his seething brain in that hour of 
temporary madness. More than that, he was perplexed at the 
antagonism to this man that had arisen up within hipi. But he 
told himself that after the revealment of the volcanic fires which 
had so suddenly burst through the verdure crowned summit of 
this man’s life, there would never now be any certainty as to 
what might next occur. 

So, after breakfast was silently eaten, he said, rising and 
leading the way — 

^^Now tell me about my father, Konnyngscrown.’^, 

You are his reflection,” was the prompt and quiet answer. 

“And, — and — what did he do?” 

“He saw the right, and admired it.” 

“What else?” 

“He yielded like a craven — no Frantze, like an average weak- 
ling, to a mighty passion, and let it carry him away.” 

With a sickening fear Frantze sprang to his feet. 

“And she — the woman? Tell me she was not my mother?” 

“No, no” said Konnyngscrown thickly, as if smothered by 
his quickly beating heart. “Hear me; then you will know 
all! She was, my — wife!” 

In a moment Frantze’s soul was filled with all that this 
avowal meant. Was it to the patient redemption of the 


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135 


son and image of the man who had done this dastardly thing, 
that Konnyngscrown had settled himself in this far away land ? 

Frantze^s head went down on the study table, while con- 
tending thoughts filled the pregnant silence. 

Then, long after, as if the other side of the matter could 
bear no words, he turned to the side which could, saying in 
a low voice, — ^^So far, the worst act I have ever done was done 
yesterday. Harry Grove got some of us down to see a steamer 
start yesterday; and the fellows took beer at a place near. 
And it was so vile looking I couldnT. They stumped me 
to take brandy, and mixed a glass full of something and down 
I tossed it. The next thing I seem to know as plain as day 
was, that all they wanted was my money; and I pulled out 
my pocket-book and threw it at them, and while they scrambled 
for it, I ran and never stopped until I got to the depot. There 
was a girl there with eyes like Ishtar^s and I felt that she had 
seen me drink with those fellows. And I was ashamed. And 
when I had been in the cars a while I began to get very angry 
at you. And when I got home I told all I knew. And that 
which I have now told is the worst about the matter. For 
the rest, you ought not to let me have so much money. These 
fellows follow me up for my money. They never so much as 
called after me when I flung down my pocket-book.^^ 

‘^Why should they?^^ said Mr. Konnyngscrown. “What 
more could they want of you? Do you suppose they want 
your high principle as a Louveteau ? Or the protecting guard 
that is encamped about thee, O ward of Jehovah? Or your 
high womanly intuitions, or poetic sentiment? They wanted 
your weakness and your money; and you yielded them both 
without a struggle.” 

“I did not lay down all my Will,” said Frantze “I kept 
enough to run with, and that was something of a fight,” he 
said, turning the point with his naturally sweet temper. 

“0, when did the fight come in?” said Mr. Konnyngscrown. 
“As I understand it, you gave up everything they wanted. 
It seems to me it was just luck that they didnT call you back. 
What I have against you is, that you seem to be at every one^s 
mercy. There doesnT seem to be anything to you only your 
singular beauty,” said Konnyngscrown scowling at the up- 
turned lashes, tender mouth, fair clear face and blue eyes which 


136 Who Builds ? 

looked forth so beatifically and wisely from under his beauti- 
fully-domed brow. 

His long lithe limbs and his every motion were instinct 
with a bright, bird-like life that was good to look upon. His 
head was at one side a little; and he, the supposed culprit 
was regarding Konnyngscrown meditatively. But then, passing 
over what he was about to say, he gently remarked, — 

^‘What ought he, my father have done, instead of yielding 
to this power of love which you think is so mighty?’^ 

He asked this with eyes like those which sweet Sir Galahad 
had fixed on one whom he felt, knew all passion-struggles. 

^^Does this thing which you say is wrong, really bear the 
average man away ? And how and when is love right ? Love 
should some how be a very right thing when the father of a 
daughter demands of a young man that he shall give it to a 
mighty war-like maiden such as Geraldine. Where does 
my wrong come in in loving Geraldine as I love her?’' 

Konnyngscrown was staggered. Where indeed was there 
a wrong in that? And yet, pausing, he said with un- 
certainty. 

‘^Here at least is a good test. Love is human, and then 
is divine. Passion is animal, and then is devilish. They are 
as far apart as are their sources, heaven and hell. Hear this: 
— love seeks the best and permanent good of the loved one. 
Passion craves self-indulgence.” 

Frantze listened and pondered, looking meditatively at 
Mr. Konnyngscrown with his head on his hand. Then said 
gravely, ‘^Now you listen to me. What you tell me may be 
of use at some future time, but you don’t in the least rightly 
understand us children here, any of us. But none the less I’ll 
tell you this. I am practically the brother of these two little 
girls. They are left in my care by Landseer. And what- 
ever claims you may have on me, and whatever claims I have 
on you, (as you say) over and above and through it all, I am 
the head of the Landseer- Ariosto family under aunt Lamed’s 
permission. And I am Geraldine’s affianced husband now, 
as far as my sense of duty to her is concerned. Though she 
is, of course, to do as she chooses about it all.” 

‘^Good heavens! What do you mean, you baby-boy?” 
ejaculated Konnyngscrown. 


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137 


^^Oh, if that’s your kind of talk” — said Frantze, fierily 
now, ^^you may go back where you came from and tell your 
Masonic brothers that this sore in your heart is too deep to 
make any dealings between you and the son of the man whom 
you hate, possible! But now remember this. I’m Geral- 
dine’s protector, and the man who stands there behind you, 
bears me out in protecting her against you even, if it comes 
to that.” 

Konnyngscrown had jumped up and looked behind him. 
“Are you crazy” he said, sitting down again, ashamed and 
trembling. Then, with a thick voice and sweat of agony on 
his face, he said: — “You don’t know what you are talking 
about! Oh, horrible! Were ever such complications known?” 

“Why don’t you tell me the whole story,” said Frantze 
after a pause. 

“I can’t. I don’t know it myself. I mean, it is too horri- 
ble. Take my word. Depend on my reasons. Give up all 
thoughts of Geraldine in that relation!” 

“Why give up? and give her up to whomf^^ said Frantze 
with a strange look. 

And Konnyngscrown pallid, left his chair, but paused at 
the door, as Frantze cried out like one in authority, — 

“It makes no difference what the complications are; your 
best way out of them will be found through telling us the whole 
story! For if Landseer knows the facts of the case Pll know 
them. But, listen to this: — if you don’t deal with me squarely 
now, at once, — I’ll find out from Landseer’s mind the whole 
facts of the case; and you’ll get no help from me no matter 
what my silence may cost you of suffering at a time when 
you would be glad of knowledge. Mind, I mean it.” 

Konnyngscrown held the door, staring at the boy in amazed 
wonder at the change which the last three or four years had 
wrought in him. “What’s come over ye?” he said trem- 
bling. 

“I know who I am” said Frantze. “I know my place in 
this family and my relation to this great epoch. In short, 
I know my business in an all round sort of a way. I never have 
been a fool; but I was for several years frightened and dis- 
abled, because I thought there was some thing wrong in my 
family, that is, — in my birth as people say.” 


138 


Who Builds ? 


^^What do you think now?^^ said Konnyngscrown wild; 
perhaps you think — you think well of your father 

‘^What do I think? I think, in fact I know he was my 
father, — and it will be time enough for me to judge him more 
when I know him better! I know my name; I know my 
lineage — as people call it all. I know m3' mother was the 
sainted wife whom my father adored, whatever else he did 
or didn’t do! I will hold myself out of it (as you cannot) and 
will withhold judgment until I know how to render justice.” 

‘^Are you mad?” 

‘‘No I am not. Neither will you make me so. I’m old, 
that’s all. I was born old in the concern for the results of past 
work. I was shocked and strained for the first nine years 
of my life, misdoubted at for the next three or four; and, since 
knowing you I have had enough turned in on my mind, of 
one sort and another, to make me forty years old today!” 

He paused, then said proudly and quite as if explaining him- 
self to himself, — “I am Landseer’s friend. That is the thing. 
I am glad, (and he is more glad than he can tell me) that I 
was so wonderfully well able to stand by him and give him 
the right kind of a pull, (Tama and I, and then Mrs. Land- 
seer, (no Lamed-Ariosto : Landseer) especially aiding us! We 
all gave him a pull together, that has half rectified his wrong 
YOU see, and now he helps us!” 

“Are you crazy? Are you mad?” 

“That remark may become monotonous; and if you have 
nothing better to say, it shows me that what I have to say is 
too good for you to follow!” 

“Do you mean that you talk to Land — 

“If you don’t know what I mean, and what we live for in 
this house, then your enlightenment must be a thing of time, 
and of ‘the purification of the outer and inner vision’ which 
you recommended to me in my ‘twelfth birth-day letter,! 
as Ishtar calls it.” 

“Oh! When I wrote you about the ideals of the Free- 
Masons?” 

“I don’t know anything about the ideal part. I only know 
you gave a very good thing in that letter; and the letter is 
to all of us, a mere good, common sense, practical view of a 
decent life! We all have supposed that you not only formu- 


Who Builds ? 


139 


lated the theory of life, but yourself had fashioned your the- 
ories into character. I don’t know now whether you have 
or not. I don’t know but what it is like some preacher’s form 
of speech, concerning how he wants other people to fashion 
their lives. You would better read it again. It might give 
you some idea of how good a sermon you preached possibly 
by accident!” 

‘‘What’s the matter with you?” 

In the midst of Frantze’s radiantly blue eyes there was 
at times an opal flame which was really as red as the reddest 
spot that burns in an opal. And this burned there now. It 
was a flame, not of anger, but the lambent fire of Parousia, 
and marked the presence of Guidance by Truth Absolute! A 
spark perhaps of the flaming pillar which of old went before 
the wilderness-wanderers, leading them to walk into the Red 
sea, assured that it would divide before them, if the thing 
to be done or attained was at the other side of its waters. 

Konnyngscrown knew something of the altar on which the 
mother of Frantze had laid him; and theoretically he knew of 
the altar on which, as the descendant of three Free-masons, 
father, grand-father and great-grand-father, he had been of- 
fered. But the conviction that through this sort of hered- 
ity and through past Karmic-results, Frantze had attained 
to a certified ease and affluence of character, had not yet 
fully taken hold on this man’s tempest-tossed nature. 

“I don’t know what you’re all at?” he said at last, distressed. 

With a meditative survey of him, square steady and kindly 
enough, Frantze replied, — “But we know: and we are friendly 
to you. And now good-morning to you, Konnyngscrown till 
we meet again.’! 


140 


Who Builds ? 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE INORDINATES. 

B y the time Geraldine had reached her seventeenth year 
Mr. Konnyngscrown was chronically irritated at her 
power over Frantze. The petulant expression of her cupid 
bow of a mouth was reflected back by the clouds of trouble in 
her dusky eyes, as they, looking forward as with a wild appeal 
for help, called to arms the sympathies of all who cared for 
her; and these were many. 

Frantze seemed not to be accomplishing very deflned results 
as a student. His intensely blue eyes look pre-occupied and 
grave, as if always arranging unadaptable antagonisms, and 
fitting together elaborations of world-wide history, with which 
his seer-like mind seethed. 

Although he was a hard reader, and an indefatigable worker 
along original lines of research, he was gaining no university 
honors in especial, nor was he preparing for professional work, 
as Konnyngscrown would have told you. But he travelled 
over the country a good bit, and knew Daniel Heem, as he 
betimes said, with brightening eyes. 

Meanwhile a reserve seemed growing up between him 
and Konnyngscrown; bewildered as he was over complica- 
tions which Frantze seemed absolutely to ignore. And with 
an effort to pull Frantze up to a level important, but not clearly 
defined even by Konnyngscrown himself, he said one morn- 
ing on the way to the depot: — 

^^The point is, like old Mejnour, I wish to separate you from 
whatever tempts you from the path of that special develop- 
ment which you, with your temperament must get hold on, 
if you are to stand against the opposing influences which 
would deluge you with antagonisms: crazing to your brain 


Who Builds ? 


141 


if instead, you cannot make them calming to your whole 
being. 

^^Frantze, look at that steam-engine. In the economical 
use of steam (if not yet in the use of electricity) we 
are a century ahead of the point yet attained in the scien- 
tific-use of the nerve-current which either racks or upbuilds 
humanity. 

^‘When James Watt discovered how to save the three- 
fourths-waste of steam-power which that enginery gener- 
ated, and when he managed it so as to bring it all to bear on 
the uses at stake (during the 25 years extension of the patent 
extended to him, the year previous to the declaration of 
American Independence) that man practically opened up 
roads by sea and land: and led up to the time when now, 
steam-run-machinery captures the electric-current, that, tying 
up the world into a speaking acquaintance: gives us to live 
amid contrivances which annihilate time and space. 

‘‘With the result that — with this inflow upon us of the wide- 
world^s wants and woes and wonders, we shall be crazed by 
this embarrassment of riches unless the young now learn 
how to utilize the three-fourths-waste of vital energy that 
is now thrown away in desires for they-know-not-what : 
which rack the race with covetousness and sadness: pro- 
ductive of conditions more disastrous to Intellectual-Vision 
than a daily old fashioned ‘blood-letting^ would be.^^ 

Jerome had made a great effort to say this. He had writ- 
ten it out and learned it by heart so as to do the thing at his 
best, for this boy. And now he stopped and waited looking 
at him uneasily: as, bounding along with his springy strides, 
with a simply polite response he said, “Yes. Once long long 
ago, Mrs. Landseer told me the reason some persons became 
fools and criminals was they wasted instead of conserving the 
nerve brain-substance which is Wisdom^s Building Material. 
Landseer gave me words afterwards which I did not like. No 
teaching is suited to boys concerning themselves and sisters 
but what is suited to girls, concerning themselves and their 
brothers. We children know that we have to carry on within 
ourselves the battle of the Ariosto-Rhoensteines : and were born 
of the conflict of the ages.’' 

“The Deuce you were!” ejaculated Jerome at a dead halt. 


142 


Who Builds ? 


— and when the Ariosto-quality (the Ghibellines) comes into 
conflict with the Rhoensteine^s Guelph — 

Frantze paused and, raising his hat, with another bow to 
Jerome turning, sprung over the wall, — under which, once he 
had thrown himself down in woeful alarms at influences of 
which now he so calmly spoke. 

Looking beyond his fast-flying figure, Jerome saw Geral- 
dine climbing the rise to the crest where stood the whispering 
oak: her arms full of books and papers going off up there, 
for a good study-time. An exclamation escaped his lips: 
nothing less than a square English ^^damn!’’ 

It fell into Ishtar^s ears as she came round the curve, and 
Konnyngscrown, meeting her look and trying to dignify the 
expletive, said, Women are the curse of young men^s lives.’' 
Then struck back by her white-faced horror: he added, 
mean — ’ ’ 

^^You mean what you said,” she interposed ^^and what I 
have seen you look at Geraldine : and what was taught in the 
pulpit last Sunday: that ^ woman brought sin into the World.’ 
It is False. We never did it.” And with firm steps she strode 
homeward: leaving him, thrown into a heap of confusion at 
the outcome of his splendid attempt to teach Frantze, things 
which he had had to get along without being taught: and 
boiling with bewilderment that the sight of that boy and 
Geraldine together should put him into such a plight, down 
he went rooting among his old miseries though outwardly 
unmoved, as he strode along with nails pressed into the 
palms of his hands furious, that out of his sub-human nature 
such conditions at times would boil up. While gripped 
into his heart were the fang-like words of an old Brahmin: 
^If there were no women there would be no lust’: to which, 
responsive through his soul’s flaming chambers rang the 
soundless howl, ^^I believe it. For if I do not believe that, 
what am I to believe about this infernal torment called ^Life’ 
and the Mother of it ?’ ’ 

Then, ^^I am an ugly brute, to make the best of me!” he 
muttered as he went down deeper for a fight with himself, 
into the depths of that hate-filled darkness which his attacks 
of Schopenhauerized-reasonings, always included. 

On Jerome’s return from the city he found a letter from 


Who Builds? 


143 


Frantze, stating that he wished at once to marry Geraldine 
if she would consent. With a humility born of horror at hid- 
den complications Konnyngscrown sought Mrs. Landseer^s 
aid. Not being able to see her, he begged Tama to explain 
the necessity of the case. For a' finality Tama said with the 
intense respect that she felt for this brave, brave battler: 
^^Sartin’ shu’, you is a mighty wise, fine man. Der donT 
seem ter be but one oder any wiser den you is. You know 
mos^ ebery-ting. But de Lawd, he knows de rest. Now 
couldn’t yer jes’ risk it, an’ trus’ de whole ob dem a lettle 
while to der Lawd? You is watchin’ Gel’dine mighty sharp 
wif dose eyes an’ thorts ob yourn: allers a’looking fer de debil 
in her. An’ shur’ ’nuf, if ye call on him an’ seek him, (he’s 
like de Lawd in dat,) he Mn be found. Now ye mightn’t know 
it Massa Konnyngscrown, but you is got dat girl under suspe& ; 
an’ no woman chile livin’ ain’t er goin’ ter stan’ dat from 
no man, young er old. Don’t yer fret yer soul, not a bit Honey ; 
but yer’ve done nigh all yer kin fer Gel’dine; an’ you’ve done 
a good deal of good too I reckin.” 

^^I’ve done nothing! And she’s ruining Frantze.” 

‘'Neber min’ Frantze, Honey. De man is allers as safe 
wif de woman as de woman is wif de man, let ’em be who dey 
will, bofe of ’em. Fear nuffin, de truf is as ’tis.” 

Tama bowed, and as if dismissed Jerome had gone away, 
incensed and alarmed. And presently concluding he was 
sick, in three hours he had arranged his affairs at the other 
house and had started south with brief adieus and no expla- 
nations. 

For an hour or two it seemed as if the spring of things had 
snapped. But Geraldine and Ishtar, with renewed energy 
then settled to their tasks, heartily seconded by Lamed and 
Tama, both of whom liked for a while to possess the situation. 

At about this time Frantze was taking a scientific course 
at the University in the adjoining city, perhaps as much — so 
as to go back and forth with Ishtar as for any other defined 
object; for as they went and came together, they talked like 
two old philosophers who had become poets of this new era. 
But often though Frantze led up to it, Ishtar would not 
discuss Geraldine. 


144 


Who Builds ? 


Not only the whole acre of land had gone over to Ishtar^s 
ownership, but under her direction every available foot of 
land on the estate was in high cultivation. 

She had also bought some land back of the Landseer estate, 
and had allowed Johnny Elton to put up there an eight-roomed 
house with a steam-laundry: according to the ambition of 
his independent, young grandmother; who now, happily did 
for several families, the never-finished-washing with which 
other leisurely (?) Tamas afflicted other homes beside Ishtar^s. 

Here John’s grandma employed the help of some of Ishtar’s 
proteges; and it would hardly be believed how many homes 
(among the served and the servers) were benefitted by the 
expenditure of the time and thought used in co-operatively 
arranging this plan. And with this young grandma inde- 
pendently occupied and happy, John found himself dwelling 
in a scholastic atmosphere, free to scientifically cultivate the 
earth, himself and others. 

So there was getting to be a large number of people coming 
in from everywhere, and coming to stay as co-workers with 
Ishtar’s up-building purposes, all of which moved on in that 
steady manner which seemed to betide whatever Ishtar put 
her hand to. 

To separate herself from commercial activity, Geraldine 
got an old table and chair from the lumber room and with 
a kerosene stove and a penitential collection of four or five 
things to use in eating, and with a hard out-fitted iron-bed- 
stead and her load of books and papers, she betook herself to 
the seclusion of the telescope room in the eastern tower. 

This was after Frantze had expressed his readiness to marry 
if she would accept him and, Mr. Landseer’s wishes. 

His was not an emotional proffer, but a distinctly duty- 
doing transaction by which he laid the matter in Geral- 
dine’s hands. For he had an interior assurance that they 
were wise and honorable. 

He had not concealed the wrath and alarm with which Jerome 
had warned him against the step; and when Geraldine said 
in no uncertain tones, — “He may mind his own business if 
he has any! / am no part of it, and I shall do as I please,” — 
Frantze had gravely waited to know her wish, that he might 
proceed to make arrangements to meet it. 


Who Builds? 


145 


This direct acquiescence had startled Geraldine, and she had 
immediately disappeared to the before mentioned solitude, there 
to try to tell her fortune with the aid of Lilly’s old astrological 
work with the use of the telescope that the attic extension had 
been constructed to accommodate. 

This attic observatory had a movable device overhead 
that let in the sky, and was, by association and general effect, 
an exalted and sufficiently ghostly place for Geraldine’s 
gruesome state of mind. It offered her what she most thor- 
oughly enjoyed: that was a place of retreat where she could 
be left to think things through from start to finish. 

She had an inherited genius for mysticism: and thought 
she possessed methods with which to get at otherwise un- 
attainable knowledges the desire for which consumed her. 
She knew a little about Landseer’s way of erecting a plan 
of the Heavens: for the casting of a horoscope: which, in 
the presence of Geraldine, he had done for the last two 
children. 

And now, thought this courageous, diligent and kind-souled, 
but perplexed young maiden, ‘^If I can rightly accomplish this, 
I shall then be able to outwit Fate: and protect Frantze and 
myself as well as Jerome Konnyngscrown and all others con- 
cerned, from whatever the ‘sinister aspects of the planets’ may 
have prearranged.” 

With some very near idea of what she purposed, all the 
family left the ‘whimsey maid’ to carry out her notions unin- 
terrupted. Her own room was easily accessible from Tama’s 
kitchen; so she was not likely to suffer for food, even though, 
for a season, she did not appear at the family table. They 
were all very good to her since she had passed through that 
nearly fatal illness, the mysteries of which, not only she but, 
they all expected yet to solve. 

In due time, Geraldine — carefully dressed and radiant with 
that glow which is on a little child’s face after it has slept away 
an outburst of anger and rage at things it cannot manage, — 
descended, meeting Ishtar: who, smiled welcome with no 
reference to the seclusion or the results of it. 

Geraldine triumphant and self-assured, led the way to the 
sun-set-rock: where, in time, she proceeded to inform Ishtar, 
that she had proved, she could live on five-dollars a month 


146 


Who Builds f 


for oat-meal and milk and a dollar more for a little room, ^such 
as the Telescope-attic’: and so had now faced Poverty”: 
wearing holes in her shoes and, ^ wrappers^: thus meeting the 
‘first Terror’ from ‘The Dweller of the Threshold, etc.’ 

Ishtar took all this solemnly enough: and Geraldine with 
a long breath began “After poverty — O! 0!” arrested in 
her story at the approach of Frantze, who somewhat doubt- 
fully though swiftly came across lots to meet them. Geraldine 
gave him her hand, unaffectedly glad to see him, and sorry 
for her hatefulness to him; saying vindictively “now that 
person is gone, we will have a little peace and forget all non- 
sense,” managing to tell Frantze these things, in a way that 
distinctly included Frantze’s proposal of marriage in the 
‘nonsense-part’ of it: which inclusion (as she scrutinizingly 
perceived) he quite readily accepted. 

Then for a while the beauty of the evening, the gladness 
of the meeting and the sense of relief that “all was now as 
natural as when they were children,” filled heart and eyes, 
as she lifted to him those dusky orbs, full of a wistfulness that 
it might always stay this way. 

Mid this condition of things Frantze walked on with them 
in that half-restrained courtly way, with which right manly, 
he met Geraldine’s moods. 

When this amiable acceptance of things began to seem 
monotonous, Geraldine explained to her companions, (with 
her perennial pleasure in surprising) that she now went three 
times a week to read Greek with “Mr. Kavanagh, a village 
minister”; assigning in justification, that as she did not want 
to hear him preach, she certainly had a right to whatever 
knowledge he had of Greek; and that she had asked him for 
it on given terms: “I said, ‘I want it, because I am poor, 
ignorant and need teaching.’ Yes, that’s what I sorrowfully told 
him!” she said, her sweet, tight-set little teeth gleaming under 
her short upper-lip as she laughed at her own impudence, 
while her sombre eyes seemed but to be contemplating the 
atrocious affair from afar. 

Frantze, whelmed in her double atmosphere of fun-mixed- 
solemnity exclaimed, “Geraldine, you are not now a child! 
How dare you do such unconventional things? Let me help 
you? I will coach you and then you can go to college and 


Who Builds ? 147 

carry all before you. I wish you would Geraldine; why don^t 
you go with Ishtar?’’ 

shall go to no make-believe old girls^ college. I’ll go 
equally to the first university in the world! And cope with 
maUj or to none at all!” 

And then, two or three minutes after that, she fell to quar- 
reling with Frantze about nothing; unless (as she told her- 
self) it was so as to not have her plans inwrought with his. 
For after all, she did pity Konnyngscrown ; but yet, she pitied 
Frantze more and was bound to protect him against Konnyngs- 
crown’s prophecy. Then she told herself she would shun 
Frantze if she were dangerous to him; and she would follow 
up that law-suit — but then, what could she do. She, only a 
girl, and with no money, nor anything. There was nothing 
apparently but the estate, and Konnyngscrown and Ishtar; 
and ^ the personal services of the glorious company of workers ’ 
(as Ishtar said): whose services, plus the soil and Ishtar’s 
and Konnyngscrown generalship were making the place not 
only remunerative to the owners, but beautiful and propor- 
tionally profitable according to the efforts of those, who co- 
operated with the owners. 

As Geraldine often had told herself she now also told 
Frantze and Ishtar, that she would have no part or lot 
in this kind of democratic undertaking. But that there was 
one thing she could do. She could go on the stage if she chose. 
But she wouldn’t do that, nor take any steps in any direc- 
tion until she was sure what was Fate. Not that she wanted to 
concur with fate! She wanted to thwart fate. Yet she didn’t 
see any goodness in being stupid ; and never going anywhere 
or doing anything. All she had ever done in her life, was to 
go up to the rock-chair by the oak on the sunset-hill, or 
down to the brook; and from there back to the house with 
her books — and — and 'avoid injuring any body,’ or being like 
that 'Rhododendron whose honey drives men mad.’ Yes, 
that was what Konnyngscrown had called her. And she 
would yet know what he meant by it. She was sure he 
knew or feared something about her of which her mother 
either knew too, or didn't know and was afraid to inquire 
about. And it seemed to Geraldine (for she had thought on 
it years now) that which ever of these different things was 


148 


Who Builds ? 


true of her past history (or of the ^ Rhododendron's ’ history) 
was worse than either of the other ways would have been. 

One day after this talk, almost crazed with thinking over 
herself and her affairs, brain-weary she fell asleep sitting 
with her books in the hollow of the rock with the dancing 
shadows of the trees playing over her. And there, with the 
tears yet on her lashes Frantze found her slumbering. He 
threw himself down at a little distance, almost weeping as 
he thought of the enchaining raspingness of the complications 
which any degree of artificiality puts on existence. 

Suddenly Geraldine awakening, said petulantly as if out of 
her dreams, never have any peace or comfort.^' 

Instantly he was on his feet, nearing her, as he said, huskily, 
^‘Geraldine! Talk this out to me all fair and square! 
If Konnyngscrown bothers you, he will go away: and if I do, 
I too will go out of your way. But 141 tell you! I have come 
today with a dog cart and I want you to, — to — O, Geraldine 
will you take a drive with me?” 

^^No, I will not!” said Geraldine passionately. For she, 
as well as others knew little of Frantze^s affairs as a ward of 
this god-father Konnyngscrown and of the order ; and she could 
learn no more than enough to make her feel that, if he were 
not rich, he certainly was placing himself in poor relations 
somehow to the future by his dallying way of neither stead- 
fastly preparing for a profession or anything else. For though 
this was a family that did not much interfere with one an- 
other's affairs, yet, each one felt concerned to sustain a cer- 
tain financial independence, and that a financial indepen- 
dence should be sustained by the others. 

Frantze looked at her curiously. ^^You didnT use to treat 
me so Geraldine,” he said at last. 

And then she wanted to know when she hadn’t treated him 
so? and so drew him on till they were quarreling like two 
children; he rocking to and fro on the ground as he sat lim- 
berly doubled up, hugging his knees and biting a bit of grass — 
not particularly distressed much less hurt or chagrined 
but rather, one would say, chiefly meditative, kind and con- 
cerned to find their way out of the bother of this thing in par- 
ticular, and many other things in general, which made exist- 
ence something of a bore just then. 


Who Builds? 


149 


wish I had never seen Mr. Konnyngscrown/^ she said 
suddenly. And then Frantze roused up and wanted to know 
what she meant; and how she was annoyed? Then with a 
memory of Geraldine's fright at the time of her sickness, and 
of his own not agreeable share in that whole transaction, he 
lapsed into silence, feeling there was not much that could be 
said. 

And with the ring-curls of sleep about her forehead and 
the nape of her white throat, tired and bored, she began bring- 
ing the blame of her discontent and of all things in general 
on Frantze; making herself so unmanageable that he said 
presently : 

You are the ugliest girl I ever saw." 

^‘That's what I aim to be," she said. 

^‘Well, you don't succeed very well then. On the contrary 
you are the charmingest girl that ever found it hard work to 
behave like a woman and to come up square to business. If 
you only would be good, and not change round so?" 

^‘Well, I won't change any more," she said softly. At this, 
Frantze threw himself at her feet gratefully, but she added, 
^^I'll be as ugly as sin right along steady." 

This brought from him an ejaculation which made Geral- 
dine laugh like one, imp-possessed. And while he lay face 
downwards on the grass pondering, she sprang out of her 
entrenchment in the rock and was over the hills and far away. 

Frantze did not hurry after her this time. But when she 
glanced back he hurried up, and they chatted blithely and 
with unbroken good fellowship all the way home. 

The soft air, the lovely sunset and the bright hues of the 
dark, bright and tender face, — in short, the sweet healthful 
young life everywhere about and within them was a very 
pleasant thing to them both. It was all simple, health-giving 
and ennobling in all its particulars except for the element 
of artificiality which the artificial and complex dealings of 
others had thrust into the affair. 

He tried to avoid the breakers tnat were always in their 
wake, and yet a bantering quarrel was forced on by Ger- 
aldine as they reached home. For she was vexed by her cer- 
tainty that he felt an ownership of her, and so finally she 
left him in anger. 


150 


Who Builds ? 


This was the quality of their intercourse that summer. 
Any one could see that there was no great enthusiasm in 
Frantze^s wooing if wooing it could be called. His serene 
patience seldom lapsed, though sometimes there was a hard 
strain put on his endurance. And this day, just as Geraldine 
left him, — he heard Ishtar’s glorious voice shrilling forth up 
in the acre : — 

he wandered away and away 
With nature, the dear old nurse; 

Who sung to him night and da}^ 

The rhymes of the universe. 

And whenever the way seemed long, 

Or his heart began to fail, 

She would sing a more wonderful song; 

Or tell a more marvellous tale. ' ^ 

And at the finishing of the line he was up among the vines, 
joining his clear young voice with hers; and as Ishtar sang, 
^^But she keeps him still a child,^^ he as happy as a child 
to be with her without having to fear breakers ahead, — 
partly called out and partly sang, — 

^^That^s just it! She (being translated) means Ishtar the 
goddess, ^ keeps him still a child ' as she pothers over her plants 
^^0 there you are,’^ said she as he came up the path between 
the beds. ^'Now look at that, Frantze; see the berries how 
they grow on your quarter of an acre, year by year. I have 
kept a separate account of all that I have raised there. So 
that when you get to be a bankrupt old beggar-man I shall 
use the interest of it to buy you flannels and hot broth.^^ 

^^What? Et tu, Brute? Chaffing a fellow?’’ he said, con- 
tentedly seating himself on the border. And she, wondering 
as she and everybody else always wondered, how he could so 
patiently bear with Geraldine’s ways: and knowing well how 
many people were attracted toward him and would be but 
too glad to win him away into their more or less questionable 
use of time, — yielded, when he asked her to sit and talk a little 
while. But there was one subject which she would never 
discuss which was in the minds of both — Geraldine’s per- 
plexities and ways and manners toward Frantze. 

She was supporting in her hand her dimpled chin, which 
told a story of possibilities different from those revealed by 


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her high-topped head and cool beryl-eyes; and as Frantze saw 
it and thought it, he called out, ^^Well, well! Clytie! I 
declare! Clytie herself !’' He usually called her Minerva, 
or the 'dear old nurse ^ and sometimes mother Maie; or 'The 
goddess/ But at the moment, 'Clytie’ sounded delightfully 
idle and sunny and irresponsible; and besides, altogether 
removed her from the tremendous pull of duty-doing, which 
loomed up ever increasingly as each activity made way 
for more and greater ones. There was in the dining-room a 
bust of Clytie, as she rises out of the corolla of a sun- 
flower; with her lovely head bent toward the sun-god as he 
comes and goes in the diurnal sweep of his chariot-wheels 
across the sky. 

The color swept over Ishtar’s face: and, in this moment 
of pleasant idleness, this fellow (does any one know why young 
people find pleasure in these little ways and manners?) began 
to delicately stick a blade of grass a little way into the sea- 
shell-pink ear which had grown pinker: and began seriously 
trying to cover, with his finger, the dimple in her chin; de- 
claring he had to because a mosquito was just making across 
the field, (sensible fellow) to bite right into it. This interrupted 
'the noble theme’ which was about to advance from the pearly- 
walled citadel behind the rosy lips of this 'Clytie.’ And Frantze 
then, to keep her from rising and because he was already too 
full of the serious questions of the new epoch to be able to 
afford the stress on his nerves which every meeting with Ger- 
aldine really cost, — asked Ishtar 'what he could do for Geral- 
dine to make her happier?’ — getting at his question awk- 
wardly, because he knew she did not wish him to touch it at 
all. 

In swift self-defense, (for to defend Geraldine was but a 
nearer form of defending herself,) she said keenly, (having in 
mind Konnyngscrown’s words, 'Young women are the curse of 
young men’s lives’) "There’s nothing needed of all that! Ger- 
aldine is happy in her own way. She is happy studying about 
twelve hours a day, and is faring like an ascetic absorbed in 
books relative to high attainment, as she calls it. She is an 
heroic woman by nature. She loves to accomplish victories 
that cost effort. She, like all we women at this fin-de-siecle feel 
the great pressure of the great need of protection against this 


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'psychic crisis. And even those of us who do not really com- 
prehend ourselves (thanks to false teachings in relation to our- 
selves) still feel the ^call to arms’ which is in the air. Our 
higher faculties are aroused to battle against the recent, sud- 
denly arranged scheme for crushing back real womanhood. 
Geraldine loves to accomplish victories that cost effort! She 
does not care for easy conquests:” Ishtar said, conscious only 
of the meanness of teachings summed up in the detestable as- 
sertion — “Young women are the curse of young men’s lives.” 

For she considered, these sorts of ill-conditioned teachings 
were put forth by saintly men of a sultry kind and that they 
had gone far to establish that ^ war of the sexes ’ which the same 
sultry saints next hope to crush out, by now, more fully than 
ever, enslaving woman! Never considering the self-evident 
fact, that, if woman’s influence over man is overwhelmingly 
strong, then of course, nothing is necessary for the uplifting 
of man, but that all women should be allowed to ascend to 
their own natural level (intellectual, moral and physical) 
that, standing thereon, they may legitimately exercise that 
influence there. And so uplift the race! 

This was Ishtar’s inherent thought of the matter! And so, 
she gathered herself up to the business of releasing Frantze 
from unnecessary sentimentality over Geraldine’s imaginary 
dependence on him for happiness. 

The talk was not a very easy one either; because Ishtar felt 
sure that Frantze was an uncommonly good, honorable fellow; 
who (between Konnyngscrown’s demands on him and Landseer’s 
clearly stated wish concerning him and Geraldine: and Geral- 
dine’s way of dealing with him, added to his own interior ten- 
dencies) had not a very easy task before him. She hardly 
knew how to get at the matter for several reasons; and so she 
always wished he would leave it out of their conversations. 
And now, feeling that it was a little weak of him (in the midst 
of the easy idleness which he seemed to think it right to enjoy) 
to take her business-filled time for sentimentalizing, she sud- 
denly decided that if she chose to drudge and overwork her- 
self to a degree which takes much off of feminine gowning and 
graces, she did not wish this fastidiously-beautiful-Frantze to 
be dallying round as a spectator of the fact! She could not 
altogether account for her own irritation, as she said, — 


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153 


'‘Did you ever make an effort of any kind, Frantze?’’ 

"One or two possibly!’^ said the splendid fellow with a white 
line about his mouth as he gave her a quick glance. 

"I don^t see what about said Ishtar. "You have all the 
privileges and advantages which load down man^s table; and 
I say it^s a shame for a girl like Geraldine to be like 'the dogs^ 
which but 'pick up the crumbs that fall from^ there. I would 
not blame women at all, if they all sunk down into invalidism, 
insanity and infidelity. For they never, with any imaginable 
effort could succeed in being as vilely idiotic as some blasphe- 
mous teachers tell you young fellows they are. I am getting 
angry at it all! What is your business in life Frantze? If 
you have any, go about it and leave us alone. Take Konnyngs- 
crown away and go with him!’^ 

Frantze had sprung to his feet. For in all his life he had 
never heard anything like this from Ishtar, He looked at her 
sharply, scrutinizingly : and, coloring, with that swift, vivid 
flush which used to vex him, said, — 

"Is it a profession you want me to take? Why should I? 
There are more doctors now than there ought to be sick persons. 
And there are more preachers than there are pulpits. And 
more lawyers than there need be law.’’ He said it lightly, but 
with his heart in his eyes as he waited before her, "I get 
more benefit from watching your ways of managing your little 
estate, with your outlying tenantry (so I call them) than I 
should get out of — , 

"What is it in work that delights your soul so constantly 
Ishtar? Do you really like it?” he said, interrupting himself. 

"Yes, I do! When I’m left alone to mind my own business, 
without being bothered with lazy boys.” 

"O, it’s only lazy boys that you dislike. Who are your in- 
dustrious boys?” 

"You know well enough who they are. But what I am 
telling you is, that I do rejoice in the work of my hands. And 
so does the Lord. The Bible says so. And I believe all the 
bibles, and I like these simple, plain, right things. And I 
won’t be bothered. I love to create new conditions; and I’m 
bound to try some experiments. I’m earthy. I love the 
touch and the smell of the earth; and love the million little 
sounds as well as I did when I really believed that the cro- 


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cuses croaked and ^ cussed^ too when winter stayed too long. 
As for the mournful ci^ow all dressed in black, who flew over 
the field before the flowers could get through the frozen ground, 
I thought him really part and parcel with the little kept-down 
crocuses who couldn’t get up out of their frost-bound beds! 
I had such faith in you in those days that I felt sure that the 
crocuses had some very sore throats to contend with, and 
that a crow was for them expressing the fact most hoarsely, 
as it flew just then cawing above our heads, while you were 
telling me that tirradidle about the frost-bound and buried 
flowers. In fact, there is a sense in which ’most any statement 
that any one could make would, in that sense be true.” 

‘^Whew! Then, suppose I should say, hoarseness isn’t 
hoarse, or sickness isn’t sick,” said he, not much caring what 
he said if he could keep Ishtar radiant as she was now, though 
with^a perilous sort of flush which included a trembling round 
her mouth that he had never seen there since she pushed back 
with her Angers the tears that would come out, when she told 
her eyes not to tear, the day, long ago, when, trying to be in- 
vincible, she vowed her vow against picking other people’s 
flowers. 

‘^If you did say sickness wasn’t sick, I should say you were 
right,” she said. ^^For what we call sickness is only a healthful 
outcry of the system, as it repels conditions which are inimi- 
cal to right order.” 

And then I suppose sadness isn’t sad?” 

'‘Of course it isn’t!” said she, trembling and angry at him. 
"Sadness is resolution growing up and pricking through the 
courage which gets lax a little, when people are lazy. Now 
go Frantze.” 

"Well I will. Just tell me one thing. Who am I? What 
is my real relation to Geraldine?” 

"You’re the coming man in relation to everything if you 
choose so to will and work,” she said with a swift look at him. 
For his soul’s distress had sent a thrill into hers, unknown to 
it before and unrecognized now by her. 

"Clytie!” he whispered, swept away suddenly, — "I’d like 
to catch you up and run out to the carriage and drive off with 
you away from all these ancient-struggles, ever renewed! 
And — and spend my time in — in keeping you the lazy-looking. 


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155 


lovely girl that your mouth and chin say you are. I would. 
I just would like to, Clytie. It^s work, work with you. You 
are getting knuckles; yours are not the perfect hands that 
Geraldine’s are.” 

Was she trembling? Frantze asked himself, startled at 
the illuminant, white sheen which had swiftly spread over 
her face. It was not pallor; it was no stopping of heart- 
throbs. It was a concussion of vibrations as rapid as those 
of a cricket on the hearth when wings make music. 

^^They are the hands I always meant them to be; the hands 
that give,” she said very low. ^‘And the knuckles are the 
sign of the clutch I have had to keep on my determination to 
do what I think 

“O, but you would make a Lady Bountiful for any man — 
yes, people to worship. You should be at the head of a sover- 
eignty where, — ” He caught himself up. 

“I am there!” she said sharply. ^‘At one-mind with those 
only real aristocrats who best serve the greatest number and 
ask least for self in return.” 

‘Hshtar,” he said suddenly, leaning toward her, as if deter- 
mined to take an irrevocable step; ^^I should be perfectly 
blameless if — if I told you all of it. At least, if — if I explained 
^most everything to you! I was of course made a Louveteau 
in virtue of my birth as son, (and in my case, grandson and 
great-grandson) of Masons of high degree. They vowed for 
me; as in the case of infant baptism. And then having gotten 
me so far, they carried me right along, with my acquiescence 
of course; only, in a way you see, there was nothing else for 
me to do, any more than there is in the case of the baptized 
baby when it, getting older, is told to prepare for first com- 
munion. It all comes easy, natural and self-elected in a way. 
Because when heredity is kept pure, and the training is inspi- 
rational and undeviating, the tendency is somewhere in the 
blood or Karma I suppose. The same probably as it is in yours 
and Geraldine’s. So you see, whatever common sense, lofty- 
character-evolving-ideals you may have, — they, very pos- 
sibly, are not above the truest aspirations of this (as far as 
I know) {nearly) the noblest body of men known to the world 
in every age, — Free Masons! I always mentally reserve one 
other class, who in training, aspiration and inherited pur- 


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poses stand second to no other, whatever may be brought to 
bear/^ 

Ishtar was silent. She had watched every word, feeling 
sure however, that he would not say a word which under vows, 
he ought not say. Ready to stop him if she thought he ap- 
proached too near a trespass, she remarked, “Yet I still 
press this point. Wealth is serviceable in the hands of those 
who would achieve fine results. In short Frantze, why don^t 
you attend to some sort of business and not be dependent 
on any man, no matter if he is fifty times a god-father? Now 
I have said it, and if you choose, you can answer as plainly 
as I have asked.” 

“No, I cannot, not even if I choose, and I can^t choose. 
There are such things as irrevocable steps. I have taken 
one, and am in allegiance to the Masonic ideal; which, as near 
as I understand, in its highest aspirations is at one with the 
aspiration of that other order into which my mother had me 
baptized at birth. Now Ishtar my Goddess, trust me against 
even the evidence of your own eyes.” 

“Well, let me see,” she said, trying to adjust herself to the 
complications of that peculiar case. “Oh, do you yourself, 
regret this Masonic relationship?” 

“Not as I understand its high and scholarly aspiration. If 
it had been possible for me to have known at birth, (and per- 
haps I did) all that is idealistically included in the baptism 
and the rights of Louveteau and in advanced degrees, even to 
the 33rd, I would with avidity have acceded to the will and 
wisdom of those who proceeded for me in this matter. Put- 
ting me into this training was my father^s work and was, in 
a way, my inheritance. My intellect commends this Magnum 
Opus. But Ishtar, I am the son of my mother as well; and 
into her Church I was born and received by baptism. 

“Ishtar, no woman has cause to be jealous of the aspirations 
of a ^Master-workman^ who so works as to gain masters 
wages; and wins a way to Hravel into far countries’!” 

“Jealous is an ugly word,” said Ishtar. “But Frantze, 
are you Guelph or Ghibelline? Or you may be both, for you 
no — I mean we are Ariosto and Rhoensteine. I am critical, not 
jealous.” 

“Oh, you could not be that. From the day of reading my 


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157 


guardian^s letter, you have been at-one with the spirit of it 
all. But I wish — in fact, Aunt Lamed is very critical about 
Free-masonry. Could anything be done about it?’’ 

^^Well yes, that is — Free-masons could make a better 
revelation of their skill at society building. For, of course it 
is necessary, that people who assume to possess wisdom in 
building society of an order not known to the masses, should 
let their ‘ work’ show their skill and quality. This brings me 
to prod away at the fact that it is not to your credit for you to 
be so seemingly purposeless and financially dependent on 
another man even if he were a hundred times your guardian. 
Now this is the third try I have made at telling you so, and 
I think it is my last.” 

‘^Come now Ishtar, how do you know but that I have taken 
the vow of poverty?” said Frantze after pondering, with 
heart’s affection in his eyes as he looked at this friend indeed. 

Ishtar laughed aloud merrily at this. There is another 
thing that you may have done with all the truth imaginable. 
That is, you may have taken, or may have to take Hhe poor 
man’s oath.’ Now that’s a term I heard somewhere in my 
childhood in relation to something. And it has to do with 
my needing to get ready those fiannels and that hot-broth 
for my on-coming old beggar-man.” 

^^It is not nice to be ‘moneying’ all the time, as Geraldine 
used to say.” 

“Yet there is no one who frets herself so dreadfully about 
money or rather the lack of it,” said Ishtar. 

“However,” said Frantze, fagging away at Ishtar now, — 
“she has the handsome hands, while yours look, — as if they 
worked very roughly-hard when they were very little.” 

“And yours and Gerry’s look as if they never did a thing, 
little or large!” interposed Ishtar. Then, — “So things look 
as they are — and — and that is always right. But it is a fact, 
my right hand especially is singularly ugly — and — and your 
sesthetic gaze has to meet it,” she said fiushing. 

“Those are not tears!” He did not utter it in words, but 
his eyes and actions as he sprang toward her said it all. Then, 
like one half wild, — 

“Aren’t These larks Pip’? Aren’t they just? You heaven- 
liest of maidens, Minerva, Clytie, all in one! Come, come. 


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Hear that horse champing his bits; and the moon coming 
up over the hills. Come goddess maid.^' With fun and 
enticingness in his femininely lovely face, his arm went around 
her, and lifting her bodily he had kissed her twice in the 
mouth before, freeing her hand, she had fetched him a ring- 
ing slap on the cheek. 

He put her down. 

They stood looking at each other. Neither of them angry, 
but both were trembling, flushed and mazed. And in the 
midst of that moment Frantze saw Geraldine coming up 
in the twilight of the vanishing sun and rising moon. 

‘‘All right Ishtar! Never you mind! This is our busi- 
ness,’^ said Frantze hastily rubbing his face, and stroking 
his soft mustache in perplexity. Ishtar curiously shrank 
up suddenly, almost beside him; confused and afraid of Ger- 
aldine. Frantze looked keenly at her; and with a sudden 
resolution — grasped her hand with a grip. And the moon 
rolled sumptuously up over the hills, flaming its brightest 
beam on the shy, enchanted face raised for an instant to his. 

Then, — “Let go,” she said, and he did; while his glad eyes 
intelligently searched hers. Then, he caught his breath as he 
whispered, “Jove! I’ve done it. Now never you mind! 
This is our affair!” 

Just what he meant he didn’t know himself. But Ger- 
aldine was there, and whether she heard or not was never 
told. She came straight on after an instant’s halt, such as 
one might make in striking a foot against a stone, and then, — 

“I want some strawberries too,” she said quietly and cor- 
dially. “Frantze, pick me a dozen on stems, right out of the 
‘beggar-man’s patch.’ ” 

“They don’t belong to me, yet. Not till I am crying for 
broth!” he answered, picking away, all the same: glad to 
know for a certainty by this remark, that Geraldine — true 
to her traditions, had lost not much of the scene, phantas- 
magoria! though it already seemed to him, except for the 
smart on his cheek, and that mystical thump of the heart 
which had not yet abated. 


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159 


CHAPTER IX. 

Tor this cause the Lord sent his Angel who is over the beast, Hegrin: 
and stopped his mouth that he should not devour thee/ — Hernias. 

' I 'HAT year was bringing Frantze the reputation of being 
a bright, woman-like fellow who kept up in college 
without much study : a companionable fellow but not ^ chummy ’ 
nor convivial and far away from being a ^dig’: neither was 
he condemned for being too good. But reputation, of course 
is one thing and character, frequently, is quite another. 

The fact was, whether on foot or on horseback, at home 
or out and about on the wheel, he was not only an incessant 
student, but was in the enjoyment of what Goethe calls, 
^unexpected gifts from above.’ For he was living amid 
increasing sights and insights concerning the relations of 
things, seen and unseen, permanent and mutable; which com- 
ing by influx, filled him with those inspirations, Hhe soul of 
which is certainty.’ 

With the result that he had become a storage-battery of 
intellectualized-forces which disrelated him from certain men 
and methods which tend to veil all reference to the Real Man^s 
possibilities in mere symbolic art: or in something like ^ songs 
without words.’ 

But how far he was from the ordinary diremption of him- 
self from the feminine-creative-latency within his own being, 
he electrically had been given to know, when, for his too- 
unbalanced act, as Diana-like a being as himself had smitten 
him on the cheek. 

Into all this he was studying as one early morn he rode 
through the bosky-ways, with a paper in hand that had been 
given him by a (not-too-well-known) teacher of the Cabalistic- 
sense of ^Old-Testament’ and other Hebraic-literature. A 
paper which in itself, was one key to the story of Character- 
building as sketched at in the book of the Genesis of that 
business. 


This is the paper. 


/ -r ^ 

y ^ 


adc^ 

iSd!^ « 









7i2r?»^ _J^' ji v^ 

^ /T ^ /TA ^^2.^^&-i4 


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161 


With it he had sought the silence of the forest in the express 
purpose of finding his place in the category of the evolutionary 
steps taken by the four-fold-man whose different degrees of 
attainment, step by step, must be evolved by every Mother's 
son of us. 

For Frantze had come to a stage at which he needed to 
account to himself for the native repugnance felt by him 
to much, pertaining to the conditions of the Adamic-men 
who are Hebraically listed as next above ^B'hemah, or cattle.^ 
Men to whom he had been made to feel unrelated as to quality 
or use or as to the pleasures, practises or purposes which, by 
them were accepted as good form, good times and good living. 

According to the bit of paper, next above Hhe inferior, earthy 
man' came 'Enosh, the afflicted man,' who ^was acquainted 
with' (not animal jollity but) ^ grief.' And whose features 
were ^marred' as the features of the Adamic-creature never, 
were or could be marred: because, while buried in the mental-' 
oblivion-of-animalism, Hhat kind' knows not the stress and 
strain of the divinitizing-discontent which — time given — 
sets in and pulls even B'hemah up to the Enosh-like-level 
of those who ^walk and talk with God as a man walks and 
talks with his friend.' 

^^But" thought Frantze ^^when there, poor B'hemah will 
have lost jollity and have gained (?) ^affliction' of the sort, 
to-be-sure, which will ^work out a far more exceeding weight 
of glory': but it will be a ^ weight,^ not a lightsome ‘glory': 
and he will have gained a countenance marred as never 
was or could be, the countenance of that Adamic-man, 
whose chubby, childlike emptiness of expression, shows little 
of that insatiable ‘hunger' which gnaws at the vitals of Enosh; 
‘a hunger not for bread but for hearing the Word of God.' 

Tying his horse, Frantze stood with his arm thrown over 
its neck for a moment. Then he moved back a little, giving 
room, while unconsciously listening to the pleasant sound, 
as the beautiful creature's white teeth pulled at the lush 
grass; satisfied to the full, as he ate there, close to the heart 
of nature. And Frantze wondered at the increased capacity- 
for misery and anguish which is so much in evidence as the 
accompaniment of each upstep in the unfoldment of the in- 


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dividual, if not, the race. For his study of Life had to do 
with ^work^ which took hold on every nerve and sinew of his 
four-fold-being: as now he searched to find his ^own place' 
amid the gifts and graces of supreme, creative action. 

But so tired was he, that the sight of the serene comfort 
of the contented horse held him wondering at the fact, that 
whatever he was struggling toward, he still remained, prob- 
ably, more at-one with the afflictions of Enosh than with the 
status of Him who, even during his crucifixion between two 
malefactors, was more intensely inspective of their needs 
and sufferings than he was concerned for the outcome of 
the crisis which, having aireated his suffering into Strength 
yet left him with but the hard business of rebutting the sym- 
pathy of that host of Angels, who, at hand, were ready to 
ultra-naturally-make-manifest to his torturers and maligners, 
the perfectness of his purity, the greatness of his goodness and 
the Might of his meekness! A help, which he must rebut; 
regardless of what befell him or what others bethought of 
him while engaging all his powers in the bettering of his 
abusers: who only by this sacrificial-instruction could them- 
selves learn to endure (and if need be, to die-enduring) while 
leaving the judicial case veiled in ignominy with other God- 
knowledges, concerning the victories of every upmounting 
VICTOR. 

This great truth Frantze realized fully. But none the 
less, he demanded a good riddance of the world from ever- 
increased suffering: and personally questioned, ^‘What of 
this suffering have / shuffled off (or what must I shuffle 
off) before I can attain the degree of evolution that places 
one in the category with Gueber, The Strong Man?" 

Strong men in plenty he knew there now were, of the sort 
that kick, whoop and jump: being more active in muscle 
than in mind or morals. But his question related to the 
gaining of a different-kind-of-strength. A kind which he 
could hope to gain only, as he laid aside that ^sadness,' and 
afflictive-darkness of Soul — which, in itself, is the bHe noire 
of those, who have not perfectingly brought to bear on each 
outward action, — those Spiritual Aspirations which co-ordi- 
natingly rebuild both body and soul. He told himself, if this 
sketchy paper was to be depended upon as a record of the 


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163 


advancement in Hhe distinct degrees^ of attainment (of which 
Swedenborg also tells) it gave reason to suppose that, in the 
refashioning of the powers and functions of the ^Superior- 
Man,^ Msh^ must have stood forth, not only as the continent 
of all that the God-companioning Enosh had attained but 
as the EMPHASIS of the fact that, in the arising from suf- 
ferings and ^groanings that could not be uttered,^ Ish had 
received a Strength which was as the Strength of The Eternal. 
A Strength, which in strong Agony (not in feeble wails of 
rebellion against agony) had b^een received into a Mind that was 
competent to fashion a-before-NOT perfected body into those 
superior, finished conditions which had then enabled the 
possessors of them to stand, self-sovereign, amid the swirl 
of the Universal-strife after that ^completeness^ toward which 
the whole Creation yearns! 

^^If this is a summing up of the matter,’’ thought he, where 
in the category, stand I? Was I born afflicted? Or are 
my brain-dissecting-^sufferings ’ but the resonance and reflec- 
tion of tones and states which filled her, whose eyes first met 
mine? What (according to Konnyngscrown) must have been 
my mother’s sufferings ? Was I so much-a-part-and-parcel-with 
what SHE passed through that, from the first, it brought to me 
such a touch of Spirit on soul, that my little tenement sufficed 
to but slightly bar my spirit’s exit?” questioned Frantze, as 
now he sat with knees doubled-up to his chin under his clasped- 
hands, biting at a leaf of grass while his eyes followed the mo- 
tions and sounds of the happily-feeding white horse: identify- 
ing the picture of him with the thoughts that next he tried to 
put in words: as he summed up explicitly, the problem, as 
to HOW an animal-man, having emerged out of primal, 
inorganic-conditions, follows on, stage after stage, attaining 
at last that spiritualized state which brings him, who has thus 
attained, that double-sight, double-hearing and double- 
brain-action which includes a transcendent unifying of the 
whole Being. 

And in answer now writing, he began his statement by first 
quoting from one of his teachers who had said, Evolution 
(once an hypothesis but now an established doctrine of the 
scientific-world) is based on the law of organic-progress, not only 
as related to the development of life’s substantial-forms — ’! 


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(he stopped: and collecting his own thoughts, added there- 
from — ^^now on earth: but as relates to the development of 
invisible, immortal man/^ 

Then he proceeded to state his present belief, partly col- 
lected from teachings collegiate that ^Hhe evolution of the 
simple into the complex through the processes of continual 
differentiation, is the same, even when it impinges on con- 
ditions which Archangels desire to look into/’ 

He saw (or thought he saw) this law of organic-progress 
had distinct relations to the wide-spread view of antiquity, 
regarding the sexual-unity of the perfect pre-hist oric-M an. 
But that this indestructible unity was possessed only by 
the Supreme-type of creatively-established-living-souls: called 
^The Superior Man’ or Ish-type, Which type, is sustained 
by the inbreathed-breath of contrasted forces, that, inces- 
santly working together (as do the fly’s breath-pumping- 
wings) permeate the body with a recreational-force that stead- 
ily educes the spiritization of substance and form. Thus 
giving to the Ish-type, an individuality as ‘distinctive in its 
singleness as it is all-pervasively Eloihimistic in its Univer- 
sality.’ 

This, the Ancients taught: and of this, Frantze experi- 
mentally knew that, when he was identified with the inflow 
of this afflatus (or mentally elect rizing-current) he pos- 
sessed a means and mode of mediation between his indi- 
viduality and his universality that so wafted him outside of 
himself as to enable him to behold himself as from afar. 

Of this (shall we say) personal appanage ( ?) he had become 
conscious when, on his twelfth-birth-day he had felt himself 
to be looking at himself, as at Jetsam which had floated in 
from the wreckage of his other lives. A time when, in the 
‘singleness of his individual-power,’ he definedly chose to gather 
himself together for The Life he had to live! And on this 
purposeful form of self-poise every year since he had kept 
his hold. Therefore, his experience of these matters gave 
him to believe, there were living, persons not a few, who, 
by thus devoutly-inbreathing-the-breath-of lives,’ scientifi- 
cally tended toward a soulful refinement and enlightenment, 
atom by atom, of body and brain. 

Some of the Adamic-fellows in college had given Frantze 


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the name, ^The pretty Miss Aneuland: tall and slender/ But 
when without real drill, he had more than once proven his 
ability to lay-out muscular fellows, and now and then, had 
done some very good things in games of ball, base and foot, — 
he usually kept out of it saying he was too old for it: and 
looking so fair and genial as he said it with that strength 
'which is the strength of ten,^ that he was no worse snubbed 
for it than he could afford to be, considering the occupations 
and aspirations which urged him on. 

Some men who were struggling through the plane of Enosh 
to that of Gueber, musing at him wonderingly, said: 'Not 
so much dude as darling.^ For this lithe and lovely flexi- 
bility of powers is not so exceptional in this great day as 
it was before the Mother of Men, nearing self-sovereignty, 
at birth were endowing with it, their sons. 

This peculiarity-of-endowment and the future use of it, 
were in Frantze^s mind: relative, now, to the episode in the 
garden, and his ejaculations, "Jove! IVe done it! All right, 
Ishtar! Never you mind! This is our affair!’^ And now a 
queer recognition had come to him of the fact that he did 
not really know what he had meant by his words: sharp-cut 
and defined though they had sounded. But he felt assured 
they meant all right by him as they went out on the air, 
which had wafted them (he felt sure) up to Heaven^s throne: 
where he would willingly meet them, when called upon! Being 
good words, he was glad they had said themselves. 

Since their utterance Ishtar had tacitly avoided him. 

None the less he knew that the act and his appeal to Jove 
and the goddess-maid had left his heart and hers quivering 
full of inextinguishable laughter. He did not go on and try 
to explain them away by saying that they were almost brother 
and sister. For he had never forgotten the surging wrath 
in Lamed’s voice when she had rebuked Geraldine: nor that 
even in Ishtar^s babyhood there had been allowed no fondling 
of the little maid by the boy whom Landseer had sharply 
told, was neither brother, kith nor kin and was not to forget 
it. And until that time, he never had. 

^ And though these (Archibald's forth-thundered) restric- 
tions had had no small part in the exaggerating of his sense 
of loneliness, affliction and unaccountable-shame which, all 


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unmerited had made earliest boyhood so hard, yet the ob- 
served-restrictions had graced that episode with the new- 
ness of the-heret of ore-unknown. 

^^Jove! I have done it! Never you mind Ishtar! This 
is our affair had finished all. 

It was an irrevocable deed, which (though subconsciously 
he had long been Vare of) in fullness of time had launched 
itself into space. 

Now thought he, “So much for that. But how about the 
matter of my relation to Landseer^s orders? And, too, how 
about my secret-hope that (failing me Geraldine^s acceptance 
of me as her Knight-for-life) I would keep to a celibate life, 
and work for this difficult era as a man, untrammelled by 
marriage and family-ties and not in bonds to Hegrin, can 
work?^' 

Frantze^s head dropped on his doubled-up-knees as he 
sat thinking in the silence broken still but by the sound of 
the lush grass as it was pulled at by the teeth of that self- 
satisfying horse. 

Pondering, he told himself “Something has befallen, the pur- 
port of which differentiates my order of existence from the 
pulse-throbs of Adam and Enosh: and allies me to that 
Vigor of God, which guides and creates Ish, new every morn- 
ing and fresh every evening. The Great Mother knows whence 
it comes and in what it is so different from the thing com- 
monly called Gove.^ 

“Have I made this discovery or has it made me? It is 
the last which has taken place,’' he said: “And it has made 
me to be — not Ishtar’s lover in an ordinary-sense of the term. 
Though it has made me to become perfectly glad and sat- 
isfied through heart, brain and nerve and sinew.” 

Yet something in it still mystified him now, as it had 
done since the sun in setting and the moon in rising simul- 
taneously had flooded those eyes of Ishtar with cross-lights, 
as they looked steadily into his, that millennial five-sixtieth 
of a minute! 

For he had wanted nothing which he had not. He did not 
‘want’ Ish! For a want includes an unsupplied-need with 
a wearisome sense of lack. He lacked nothing. He had all. 
For at that minute, as if by a salutary exchange of potent- 


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thought, there came across space a swift rushing-together 
of their intellectualized-Beings : as both, listening alert, had 
heard in their souls, the words, — ‘Be not ashamed. But 
receive Strength into your mind through the commands 
that I am about to deliver unto thee. For this cause ^ (was 
it that they might receive strength into their minds?) ‘the 
Lord has sent his Angel which is over the beast whose name 
is Hegrin: and stopped his mouth that he should not devour 
theeJ 

“O miracle of Grace cried this born-mystic, trained 
Louveteau and son of Adonai. 

For to him, these words of Hermas had come like the sound 
of mighty rushing waters: bearing him and them on together 
(he was sure of it) into the being of Ish: so that at that 
moment he needed no one to assure him that Ishtar, with 
him, had received the assurance, — ‘If therefore you shall 
prepare yourselves^^ (who? Ishtar and he? who else if not?) 
‘ you may escape Hegrin the beast : (loved of Adamic-men but) 
the inimicable terror of struggling, fleeing Enosh, yet whom, held 
well in leash, is the might of strong Gueber and the comrade 
and servant of Ish, the Superior-Man, The ‘Angel who is over 
the beast whose name is Hegrin.' " 

With the thought, there came before him the memory of 
the statue of Una and her Lion: and he exclaimed, “Ish, Ish, 
my Ishtar! Now I know all. I ask nothing. My vow may 
be performed unto the Lord-of-Life; whom with you I will 
serve all the days of my life: without complaint or question 
and without lack, want, weariness or any such thing." 

And this was how Frantze got an answer that day, when 
he sought to find his place in the four-fold category of the evolv- 
ing-Man, and, seeking to learn ‘ If the bounding Vigor in his 
nerves, differed from that of the average youth,' received 
for answer, ‘Life is the same life in all veins. Neither 
is there originated a new species in these days, when manly 
maidens and maidenly-men are prophesying, seeing visions 
and dreaming dreams concerning marriages which shall be 
like the Kingdom of Heaven. Marriages possibly to be 
sustained at the new level at which the new man and the 
new maid may live at a plane-of-blessedness which fadeth 
not away.' 


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It seemed to Frantze that he had that morning lived through 
ages, in which the laborious incarnations of his ego had passed 
in review before him, since all so early, he had come into the 
woods on his white horse, as Saxon-youth of old, might have 
journeyed forth into field of prowess. 

For no mystical forest, pictured by England's once poet 
Laureate in his allegories of youth astray mid lovers labyrin- 
thine bewilderments: — nay: not even wonders wild told of 
Spenser^s fairy Queen could outdo the sights (invisibly) 
seen: the deeds effectuated, the victories gained and the 
peace-restored: — all of which had had their part in the mazy- 
morn, spent by this young Knight on the bosky-mountain- 
road of a Massachusetts town in that last decade of the twen- 
tieth century. 

Nor was he alone in it all. For not so far away was Ishtar: 
quite as poised, purposeful and self-contained as was he: 
while busying herself in that way of which some one has said, 
Woman is bonniest of when she is doing what must be 
done.- 


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169 


CHAPTER X. 

THE RATIONALIZATION AND THE DIVINITIZATION OF LATENT 
FACULTIES. 

TN those days, without haste and without waste Ishtar 
worked on incessantly. And as she went among her 'in- 
dustrial friends’ she came in frequent contact with the Rev. 
Kavanagh, (he of the Greek-lesson episode) for whose company 
to and from the city, Frantze said, he saw no necessity. 

But he was more enlightened than pleased when Ishtar 
answered, 

"You mistake him as he mistakes you. For to him, you 
are the exact pattern of the man whom he would call 'a cum- 
berer of the ground.’ ” 

"Quite so,” said Frantze "as he to me is the exact pattern 
of the would-be-ruler who would like to issue the command 
'cut him down.’ He does his best at it every time I speak. 
He considers me de trop. That, too is my opinion of him. 
Every one sees Ishtar, he is hard hit.” 

To which Ishtar had composedly answered, "That, was 
settled a year ago. But I told him though I could never be 
his wife we could go on working in the same world just the 
same.” 

"Great Scott!” ejaculated Frantze with a straightening of 
his neckcords that pulled his fist-nerves into a position sig- 
nificant of the chill in his tone as he continued dispassionately : 
"You know it is his theory that woman should accomplish 
her work through man, in a self-effacing way: inspiring him 
(if she is able) what to do and say: then, of course, man will 
do as he likes about all that! He talks as if he were a trust- 
company with the capitalized-religions of the world in his 
grip. As for your idea about 'working together in the same 
world,’ that to him means, that sooner or later he will see to 


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it that he becomes the ^ world ^ in and for which you will work. 
His nature is nothing if not passionally emotional. His 
voice is unctuous, and if you give him, what he greatly lacks 
(that is ideaSj and electrical language to clothe them in) you 
will be an all-round help for his all-round needs! 

^^He has already gotten you into a ^mush of concessions,’ 
so that you now are a better Calvinist than he is. A mush 
of concessions is never a valuable affirmation of anything, 
do you think?” 

^‘That depends,” said Ishtar. ^^The word concede means 
Hhe vacating of a holding (be it of opinion or whatever) in 
virtue of taking possession of a more beneficent and enlarged 
holding.’ And my point is, a talent for such ‘concession’ 
is a requisite outfit for a lover of our national constitution, 
which is founded on ‘equal rights to all and special privileges 
to none.’ ” 

“But what I’m telling you is,” said Frantze persistently, 
^Hhat man wants your help and means to have it.” 

“I am giving it to him!” said Ishtar. “He is antagoniz- 
ing what he calls ‘a combine for a world- wide creedaiism.’ 
He is writing a sermon to show why Luther, Hume, Diderot, 
Comte, Mill, Chalmers, Priestley, Helvetius, Hobbes, Spinoza, 
Hamilton etc. etc. — did not succeed. He says he upholds 
Calvin because Calvin does not make God accountable for 
sin; though he does not explain who is accountable for it 
if it exists: and if the Creator of all things did not create 
it. He asserts, this is a God-governed Universe: yet he 
spurs men up, as if they were ordained to go a’murdering 
those who up and down the earth do not worship according 
to a theory of salvation which this minister says, he does not 
understand nor accept even as far as he does understand it. 
Though he neither wishes to leave the Presbyterian-pulpit 
nor preach Calvinism there: nor will he remain in the pulpit 
unless he can preach, what the Presbyters pay him to preach 
and that is Calvinism. I asked him whether his difficul- 
ties were not identical with Calvin’s own, who said of him- 
self, ‘By nature suh rusticus I sought some hiding-place for 
study but was not allowed it.’ Reminding him that Calvin, 
by persistently seeking it, at least found so much of time 
and quiet, that, at the age of twenty-five he had written in 


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Latin for the learned world to read, his ^System of Salvation^ 
which, with his ‘Institutes^ set forth I think a good showing 
of the natural evolution of soul: in so rational a manner that 
any spiritually-minded scientific person (whatever his creed, 
nationality or language) need not object to its inner-sense. 
But the Rev. Kavanagh cannot yet get at the ‘inner sense.' 
Because he does not realize that the service which the body 
gives in compliance with Spirit's invigorating demands, so 
far from wearing out the body, vitalizes every nerve of brain 
and being. Neither seems he to comprehend that the Fire of 
Grace, has nothing to do with the fire of desire! Nor did he 
accept the idea that, if the flame of devotion to principle 
never dies down then the whole man, soul and body will 
be refined as gold is refined in a crucible, when the dross is 
burned away and nothing remains which fire can feed upon! 
Nor did he accept the idea, that the body of such a soul may 
become like the body of Jesus: when, spiritized through and 
through after crucifixion, he ascended to where he was, before 
Mary had mystically mothered him. 

“He could not see that it was no more reasonable that 
water, in its rightly adapted machine should, under right 
conditions be converted into steam-power, than that Life, in 
a rightly adapted bodily machine, should, under right conditions 
be converted into God-power. He declared this could not be 
accomplished in a thousand years: — not seeming to consider 
the fact that even then, we had time enough, as the Eternal 
years of God are ours. But only ejaculating ‘A man converted 
to God-power, as water, in a rightly adapted machine, under 
right conditions is converted to steam-power? What a stupen- 
dous idea ' : adding, ‘ if some saintly men did intimate something 
like that it was not the business of a woman to be getting 
out such ideas on her own account: and that if I wanted 
instruction I should marry a husband and make a home for 
him and learn of him what I needed to know. I told him 
we had a home made already, which was the abiding place 
of students (and of studious-practicalizers) of the philosophy 
‘how to really follow Jesus in his regeneration, baptism, cru- 
cifixion, resurrection and ascension.' For that we (and our 
forebears) really expected to be vitalized and eternized by 
the power of the ‘indwelling Spirit'; simply through doing 


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the ‘Will of Wisdom^ in that single-hearted manner, bidden 
us in Pauhs mandate when he so simply put it: ‘Let^ (that 
is do not hinder) ‘let the Mind be in you that is in Christ.’ 
For could we so ‘let’ it be, then that Mind, being infallible (if we 
could and would let it be in us) would make us infallible. 
For Mind does the body make and the whole being.” 

“Oh! that leads to assumption,” said Frantze, startled. 

“Yes, ‘the assumption of the Virgin’ including as that 
literally does, an ascension out of all fleshly bondage into 
a verifying of the Spiritualities. It includes nothing less than 
the very assumption of self-harmonizing creative-power which 
the early Christians had attained when of it, to them, Jesus 
said, ‘All power is given you in heaven and earth.’” 

“And under right conditions the same power is given us 
now as freely as is the air. But some persons do not know 
how to breathe air: nor how to breathe the breath of God.” 

Hesitating Frantze said, “But the danger is, when persons 
think themselves to be on that plane, often they And them- 
selves too unspiritual to sustain themselves (or let the Divine 
sustain them) in doing what their vision of Truth’s demands, 
may have impelled them to undertake. Then low psychic- 
influences, coming from the nether-world, sometimes impel 
such bewildered visionaries to dominate others. And too 
late, they find this desire ‘is very wild and very hard to 
tame, and that its wildness consumes men.’ 

“We often forget that in order to utilize the afflatus of- 
Spirit we must ‘stand aside in the coming battle and let the 
self that is greater than the self fight for us’.” 

“Yes,” said Ishtar, “I tried to speak to him of that: but he 
only the more begged me to be his wife and help him to in- 
fallibility. ” 

“Good, modest little man!” said Frantze. “He wants 
only Ishtar and infallibility.” 

“I told him,” she continued, “that for me to be his wife 
would do no good. For, with his disposition he would not 
accept from a m/e, one suggestion or criticism. And that as 
the gift of God is not a matter of traffic, if I tried to restrain or 
constrain It in order to meet exterior demands, that that would 
‘grieve the Spirit’ and It would flee away. I said ‘I tell you 
this for the sake of the woman whom later, you are to marry; 


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173 


and for the children to whom you will be father, and for the 
congregations to whom you may preach a hundred times 
a year during the next thirty-five years. And I told him 
that now, having expended upon me his unmuffled anger, the 
wife-that-is-to-be would get a better chance to speak discrim- 
inatingly and so would rid her soul and her children’s souls 
of that furtive mental attitude which, burdening frightened 
vromen, distorts and ruins them and their frightened children! 

^^He looked at me as if he wished to marry me so as to anni- 
hilate me for being me; saying 'The world is a’rack and a’rave 
with greed for dominance. And as for woman, she claims 
more for herself than was claimed for the Almighty. For 
it was merely said of Him that He repented Him that He 
had made man. While woman, now-a-days has the air 
of thinking she can better the job. And he told me. When 
I found myself so full of smartness, I would better get off of 
my pinnacle and go and marry a good man; and then, when 
an access of such smartness came on, I could pass it over to 
my husband to utilize.” 

"Didn’t I tell you so?” said Frantze. He drew a long 
breath, snapping his boots with his cane, looking once and 
again critically at her. 

He saw her walking with deliberate, ground-covering steps, 
her hands clasped lightly before her and her face luminous 
with a revery out of which she said : 

"I conceded that the terms 'conviction, conversion and 
sanctification,’ could as well be used by us (except for one point) 
as could our personally-selected terms, 'The rationalization 
and divinitization of latent faculties,’ and that, the excep- 
tion taken to the other is, that Calvin apparently held that 
the change from animalism to a full spiritization of the whole 
man must be accomplished in one life (or incarnation) else, 
failing that, the man, dying, would do so with no hope of 
redemption from everlasting fires.” 

"But,” said Frantze, "if I correctly remember, you con- 
ceded something about that fire.” 

"Yes, it was that we had no reason to wish to escape that 
fire, because that fire is Life! Everlasting Life!” 

"Did Kavanagh understand your meaning? Did he make 
a recession?” 


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but he said — ’’ 

'^Said what?^' 

^^Said, I ^beat the Dutch So now you have heard it all/’ 

Frantze declared she did. But that evidently if people 
cared to go into such discussions with every sort of a fellow, 
of course, such a general keeping of ^open court’ would tend 
to cultivate discrimination concerning mixed up statements. 

Whereas, if but one man’s statement, now here and now there, 
was supposed to pre-empt a claim on all that the great God 
knows about Himself, and if, then this ^system’ is set up 
Juggernaut-like as a ‘Body of Divinity,’ probably the hody~ 
part will soon become so much in evidence that the soul 
and spirit of the matter will get fleshed over, out of all recog- 
nition.” Adding; 

“And really Ishtar, Calvin’s brevities as set forth by you, 
concerning heaven and hell (with your idea of Calvin’s scheme 
for winning one and escaping the other), would be good for 
men who are so much in love with their bodies that they 
can’t or won’t think, but will only feel! For on such a man 
the fear of being burned in Are through all eternity might 
take such a hold that such a man might want to get rid of beast- 
likeness for fear of beast-pain. And that is none too much 
or too crude a statement for the use of such understandings. 
For in fact, no fire of caloric can cause such pangs as do the 
fires which brutishness lights for the soul, as it always finds 
out, when it wakes to find itself astray amid unordinated de- 
sires.” 

“Though to our minds” Ishtar interposed “in suchCalvin- 
istic-brevities, the matter of ‘punishment’ is given as confus- 
ingly-conspicuous a prominence as is the talk about ‘forgive- 
ness.’ Regardless of the fact that through all realms of being, 
orderly Evolutionary Life simply ‘works on’: neither punish- 
ing nor forgiving but, with Omniscient- Wisdom securing to the 
Ego at each stage of development, the outworking of that 
God-potency which creates the remission (or ‘sending back’) 
of restrictive bodily-incompetence, which, otherwise retards 
the motions of the enlarged and dignifying inflow of interior 
affluence. 

“For instance, nature does not have to forgive a polliwog 
for not being a frog, but, in time, secures a remission (or send- 


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175 


ing back) of polliwog-limitations through arousing the polli- 
wog^s desire for the output of its latent travelling abilities 
or legs: with the result, it takes its next step on the way 
to stand in time a frog possessed of ability to live on land 
as well as water, and to fill the air with cries of Jug-er-r-r-r- 
rum ! J uger-r-r-r um ! 

^^This abatement of frog limitations well enough illustrates 
the fact that every creature meets in its path a passable up- 
step; the taking of which includes in its degree, exactly that 
ordination of un-ordinated desires of which Mother says, 
the reason we are so slow in accepting information concerning 
upsteps which are before us is, because at every plane each 
climber holds onto the step-last-taken quite as if it were the 
last to be taken. And that while the instincts of hunger and 
such things, impel lesser forms to ^ put-along-upward-or-die,^ yet 
we, who are in greater and more-variously-capacitated bodies, 
are artificially hampered with man-managed-restrictions, 
which stultify our natural use of Right-Reason. A God-given 
Right-Reason which exercised, would enable us to meet our 
ever-increasingly-spiritual-needs, as the polliwogs^ use of God- 
given-instinct all sufficingly enables them to meet their needs, 
such as they are. 

‘^This, my mother told me the day when I asked her in my 
child-way why (if the tad-poles and polliwogs could put forth 
legs and all the traveling-accoutrements to which the needs 
of on-coming bullfrogery impelled them) I could not sprout 
some more arms and hands so that I could do for my 
Mother, all the things I could then think of how to do. She 
told me about some mind-wings and mind-machinery that 
were all latent in me: and which of course I w^ould ‘sprout’ 
bye and bye. And after that when Geraldine that day called 
ancient-fern-life ‘filthy slime,’ then ‘Nature the dear old 
nurse’ seemed to take me in hand; so that I more than half 
realized that when frogs came back, putting on so much new 
form (though they had departed from their old legless fashion 
and instead, bye and bye got to have four of them on which to 
squat, hop and ^wander away’) they were not 'sinners,’ even 
though they had acquired new-traveling-accoutrements: and 
had gone to regions which (though beyond polliwog-realms) were 
not out of the reach of birds who (not squat and hop, but) 


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hop, fight and fly. And one day, down by the lily-stream my 
Father seemed saying so: laughing over it with a bird which 
was singing forth a heart full of fun: while, scooping down, he 
whistled, ‘Up with you, Ishtar: fly!^ Making me know that 
my Mother^s real wings of Faith were good ones too: and that on 
them we could follow my Father to where there were abilities 
and capacities as much grander than we had, as ours were 
greater than the ability of frogs. And that my Mother’s Svings 
of faith in-the-end-to-be-gained ’ as my father journeys on in 
his never-say-die-courage, was a ‘capacity’ and an ‘ability’ as 
far beyond the conditions of some purblind condemners of 



him as their capacity was beyond mere frog-fights etc. The 
pull on my father was so strong that Frantze, he could 
hardly help going! My mother realized it. And now, I 
and my Mother and Father together, understand each 
other, as perhaps neither separate from the other two, could 
do. And so I say, I expect and will have the ultimate-woman 
born so that she (all of them) shall come and lift men as 
we do my father who wants to come again and be — ” she 
stopped self-repressed: and Frantze, thinking he knew-not- 
what, said 

“Blessed Demoiselle: you have excellent reason for choos- 
ing the term ‘the remission of sin,’ understanding the word 
‘sin’ to mean in all the scales, ‘lack of supreme-develop- 
ment.’ Your ornithological basis favors an exaltedly natural, 
evolutionary thesis. But did you tell Kavanagh about all 
this?” 

“I told him of course we children learned the relation of 


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177 


bull-froggery to other forms of being: and that, so as to be 
perfectly fair to the frogs, I used to hunt in the lily pond for 
traces of the frog’s ancestry.” 

think you said too much to Kavanagh,” said Frantze. 

“Not so very much” said Ishtar, “considering I began when 
I was seven years old, when first I met him at Johnny El- 
ton’s. He knew long ago, about how I had seen polliwogs 
at a stage where they could only put forth two feet and just 
paddle with them in the water a little, not getting on much 
faster than the others did by simply wriggling the long tail 
that was attached to their headless body or bodiless-head, 
which ever it was. I think it was the first. But more lately 
I told him that I would like to see the Scientific-theory of the 
remission of limitations applied on evolutionary-principles, so 
that every child in the United States, by the use of Webster’s 
or Worcester’s dictionary , could understand it if only they had 
been taught to use a dictionary for the finding out what un- 
slang-talking persons were talking about. 

“For allowing polliwog and frog etc., to exhibit the evolu- 
tionary steps taken down below, every child, with a little 
assistance would, by analogy, come to a commonsense idea 
of the evolution of loftiest-Spirit powers: the output of which, 
thus might be more rationally and precisely comprehended 
than by the usual talk of ‘sanctification a la Calvin.” 

“Heredity might thus be so interestingly and intellectual- 
izingly dealt with that (doing away with the fascinations of 
mystery) its study would send to the bogs, the manners and 
tendencies of the frogs. 

“Perhaps something of the highest aspirations of even the 
frog is set forth in what is (otherwise) the grotesque of a Jap- 



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anese piece of imagery: which you know is on a pen-dish used 
at one of the writing-tables at home. 

^^You remember that there a frog sits with one hand on 
his knee and with a lotus-bud held to his heart in the other, 
while contemplating at a distance, quite worshipfully, a full- 
blown lotus, the lily of the Japanese. 

^^To be sure, it is but the lily pad upon which he ventures 
to seat himself. And fortunate, too, seeing that it is the 
Heart of the lotus-blossom which the idealizing Vishnaites of 
India assign as the fitting water-chariot for Vishnu: as therein 
she rides, free a’float ’twixt sun and wave, with Siva, the son 
of her god, at her breast. 

Almost meaningless are these recorded words, lacking as 
they needs must ^ The Light ^ which, trembling alike in tone and 
feature, brought from Frantze the startled, breathless ejacula- 
tion, 

^^My goddess Maid! Forget frogs and bogs. Attend to me! 
For I am breaking my head to get a scientific-evolutionary 
theory in form, to put before the millions of children: not, 
however, beginning down in the mud-world, but in realms 
above (not below) where say you and I and other ordinarily 
decent-persons, of course dwell and expect all others, nat- 
urally to dwell! 

^‘1 want it to start at a level where they shall have already 
climbed up out of bodily servitude into that anticipation-oi- 
the-spiritual-self-sovereignty that is natural to us. Why not? 
In fact, those other sorts of detestable things are all just ready 
to die out. Why not forget (and have children forget) that 
there are frogs or bogs or beasts or Yins^ or limitations?^^ 

^^They canT be forgotten. They still are part of the prob- 
lem, said Ishtar. ^^And as to ^getting rid of them^ the only 
way to bring that about, is for us (you and I and everybody) 
to cease cultivating froggyness or boggyness, in ourselves.’^ 

^^But I want you to formulate a system — 

Never a Yystem^ said Ishtar, 

— which will keep children from floundering in the 
muck and mire in which the cultivation of animal hungers 
now drowns their spiritual-perceptions.^^ 

^‘The cultivation would cease, au natureV’: said Ishtar, 
*Tf free-play were given to the mother-potency! Mother- 


Who Builds ? 


179 


hood might be the Result of that coming of ' The-Breath-of- 
Lives^ which, as inbreathed by Mary, made her to he a 
mother. 

As if through all ages and climes this mystic matter had 
not been accepted as creed by historic hierarchies, Frantze 
looked at her, wondering if she did expect that the glorious 
things^' spoken by prophets, priests, seers and saviours, 
were now a possibly-near, evolutionary-upstep into conditions, 
in which without servitude, sin or pain, humanity would be 
born of spirit by Spirit and for the coming of now-to-be- 
prepared-for spirits of the type foreshadowed in Jesus and 
his finished work. 

He repeated in mazed thought Hhe inbreathed Breath-of- 
Lives made her to be a mother^? — hearing meanwhile Ishtar^s 
words, as they seemed trailing in on the air from afar, 

— nature of the beautiful King Arthur and his beautiful 
Mother. Books, birds and illustrated teachings which filled 
his mind^s reservoirs with the expectancy of the bourgeoning 
forth of powers scarcely suggestible. He was about four years 
old when, enchanted with the illustrative Saxon poems that 
his mother loved, he, brain and being, became possessed of 
them. He and his Mother were born good.’’ 

‘^But you think frogs are good, too,” said Frantze, and 
she replied, Those then will belong to a forgotten category 
of creatures. Other beings, like us and our mothers, will then 
be but the average sort, and in a not-thereafter-to-be revived 
category.” 

With one of those sudden outbursts against something in 
some stage of the buried past, he said ^^Look out, Ishtar. 
I want no domineering, mystical, individuality-destroying- 
hierarchies let in on us.” And Ishtar realizing how much 
of their talk might, to many persons, appear mystical, said 
simply: 

Let’s go forward with, scientific evolutionary methods.” 

^^That’s what I want,” said Frantze. ^^Therefore I want 
to dyke out those dominant-dazing-controls of which I have 
an uncommonly sharp remembrance!” 

‘^Dyke away, Frantze! Meanwhile remembering,” said 
Ishtar, ‘Hhat the Sciences such as we have in mind, were prac- 


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tised by Alfred and his mother as well as by people in the 
countries of the Mediterranean, who for the love of practical- 
izing Hhe Science of Life^ lived abstemiously — not only to 
relieve themselves of the burden of toiling for animalizing 
luxuries, but — in order that, by abstemiousness, they would 
more surely evolve a spiritual-affluence which renders men 
real Divines: because, diviners of Truth-as-it-is!’^ 

do not doubt, a few succeeded!’’ said Frantze. ‘^But 
others, then and since, without, evolving much that is superior 
to the frog-like ^squatter-sovereignty’ which holds its own in 
virtue of mere dead weight, accepted and still do accept, 
the appellation, ^Divines.’” 

However the result was,” Ishtar went on, ^Hhe hewers 
of wood and the drawers of water and the slingers of swords, 
desired to be like the class of persons who showed themselves 
to be possessed of Possessions more valuable than money 
could buy! Possessions, which could not be ^bought’ with 
money nor emoluments: but could be obtained only by a 
^ patient continuance in well doing, ’ such as few persons cared 
to exercise. 

^^Then, too, these persons had a better way of conquering 
enemies than just by killing their bodies. That ^conquers 
nothing, for it leaves afloat on the world the Linga Shirira of 
the more developed, and the ^Flying fiery Jiva’ of the polli- 
wog and frog type.” 

^‘That was all very well,” said Frantze, “till the real dif- 
ference that should exist between the taught and the ^author- 
itative’ teacher, began to fossilize into mere class distinctions 
founded on little else but reported ancestral greatness! But 
when especial ^prerogative’ was granted to some while taking 
away freedom of thought, speech and action from others, — 
then I consider it was fortunate that class pretensions made 
way for popular-education and popular self-government.” 

Adding out of the silence: 

“Ishtar, I feel irritated! I am doubling up fists at too much 
of this clericalism. And against so much appropriation of 
everything for the education of the few at the expense of the 
many! I consider that men who take time to amass within 
themselves intellectual and Spiritual wealth have no more 
claim to special prerogative on that score than have other men. 


Who Builds? 


181 


who amass wealth outside of themselves: whether of herds or 
coupons ! What ails me ? ’ ^ 

^^Paul, once of Tarsus, set his seal of approval on that view 
of the case^^ said Ishtar. ^^With all his scholarship that great 
Gentleman chose to make tents for a livelihood, so that, stand- 
ing in financial-freedom, he would be neither burdensome nor 
answerable to any, save God alone. He also aided others 
to act on their own responsibility with perfect independence: 
saying, ^Has a man faith? Let him have it to himself. 
To his own master a man stands or falls. One is your Master: 
even God’!’'. 

They now had reached the depot after their long walk from 
the University and after seating themselves in the cars, 
Frantze, asking if Ishtar were tired of their long discussion and 
receiving the negative, briefiy stated how his inherited tendency 
toward Hierarchical methods had been met (as she knew) by 
his Masonic-tendency to develop the individual, regardless of 
artificial Institutionalism, so that these contending forces had 
kept his mind a’tilt at this epoch. 

^^But after your well-put concessions to Calvinism I find 
that what I thought was a divided mind in me, looked to be 
(when I saw it in you) a righteous and scientific sort of double- 
centeredness.” 

^‘You make me think of the hymn, 

^Now rest, my long divided heart: 

Fixed on this double-center, rest, ^ ” 

said Ishtar. 

“I am far from the resting point” said he. '^Rather I feel 
to be standing before a 'Mounting stone.’ You remember 
the picture and the meaning? And I tell you if I should give 
up one bit to the whelming infiuence that comes deluging 
me (instead of analyzing-differences, step by step), I should 
fall into a habit of concessions that would ruin my ability to 
take the initiative in any crisis that comes up. So that no 
matter to what institution or individual I should give myself 
the habit would leave me to be of no more service than a piece 
of water-soaked lumber. Whereas, you, Ishtar, are like a 
square block of faultless granite, fitting perfectly into place 


182 Who Builds ? 

as you yet stand separated from everybody and allied to every, 
soul/^ 

There you have it,’^ said Ishtar. “Being allied to the 
Spirit-of-The-Universe rids us of all necessity for allegiance 
to any body or bodies. If I am at-one-mind with it I am 
at one-mind-with all other-Minds who are also at-one-mind- 
with It! And then no organizing and no 'vows’ and no 'join- 
ing’ anything is requisite. It is but the younger ones, like 
Kavanagh and Calvin and not you, who have to decide on 
which side of the fight they stand. There is no fight: any 
more than there is relative to the centripetal and centrifugal- 
forces which vibrate from center to circumference of the 
Universe, or from the positive and negative poles of the 
Arclight. Keep close to the center. There both forces 
are. There, is rest-on-the-wing.” 

''But I tell you, my Mother had me baptized into the Cath- 
olic-Communion of Saints. And my father and Konnyngs- 
crown have put me along the other lines. And there are mat- 
ters of Democracy and matters of Aristocracy and a lot more 
of it: and where am I? Do you see?” 

“Yes, I see that all the best of these things are so well mixed 
up in you: that you seem to be it all, and so a fair exponent 
of the harmonizing outcome of the old strifes and of the fact, 
that they are a very easily adjustable matter in these days, 
when 'neither at Jerusalem nor in the Mountain will men 
need to go to worship: for God seeketh such, as simply wor- 
ship in — TRUTH.’ Temple enough that is, for those who are 
in IT. 

“Only, one should have resolution enough to not badger 
themselves to talk after 'suspension’ arrives.” 

“That depends” said Frantze “on who or what adminis- 
ters 'suspension.’ A combined psychic-power (sometimes 
mistakenly calling itself 'spiritual’) could dominate individual 
thought, speech and act more obliteratingly than could the 
sharpest police-force, blue-laws or bayonets. That was what 
I was talking about awhile ago. It makes me uneasy. So that 
I go to extremes of speech or act, in the avoidance of such 
interference.” Ishtar laughed merrily, which she not often 
did. Then asked if that would not be a temptation to turn 
the trick (if any there were) the other way about: with the 


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183 


result that he would be netted up in his own antagonisms? 
adding, “It is all very plain and simple. Let’s do right and 
take it easy.” 

“Individuality is the thing!” said Frantze. “I think Paul 
did much harm when he told women to keep silence in the 
churches. Your scholarly disquisitions” said he with a pleas- 
ant laugh, at her meditative-inspection of that term, “makes 
me see that the Truth, which ^Mary, the Mother’ must have 
had to tell, would, beyond all limit — have been the Truths 
that men (real men) would have been exalted by hearing.. 
But as the Truths would have been of the sort that would 
have brought restrictions on some of the saints they were prob- 
ably the sort of utterance that some of the saints saw fit to 
restrict. With the result, that women secluded themselves in 
cloisters; and there perhaps accommodated their remarks to 
ordinary hardness of heart and softness of head.” 

“Now if you will remember Frantze, it was not I that said 
all that,” stipulated Ishtar, “I will say that, when we recall 
the frog-life of the so-called patricians of Rome, b.c., we may 
recognize that it was something like parental-wisdom which 
won Intelligence into homes where youth (before the evil 
days drew nigh when they might say ^ I have no pleasure in’ 
this strenuous style of brain-building) were cloistered. For 
that they probably needed to be cloistered there until they 
had surmounted a sufficient number of moralizing-upsteps, 
to have gained to themselves pleasure in the Peace of self- 
wholeness. 

“I seem to have a pre-existent memory of those cloisters 
(to which some persons allude unappreciatively) but which 
seem to me to be very little other than the sort of ‘ cloistered- 
home’ in which on a small scale Lamed has kept herself and 
us secluded while (unbroken-in-upon by time- wasting per- 
sonal-gossip) we have learned and accomplished what, so 
far, we have! But of course, however much some of our 
philosophies have been like that of Hierophants of old, ours 
has been a home in which the necessities of an individualizing- 
liberty have been met to an emphasized extreme.” 

“Truly” said Frantze. “And what I have on my mind 
is, that it is cruel for women to have let men so sink down 
into death and madness: when they might have prevented 


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Who Builds ? 


it if they had risen np as a whole and had assumed their right 
place and so have kept things straight/^ 

^^They could not rise up as a whole, unless they had dropped 
men as a whole. They can only rise individually: being 
careful not to frighten men, as I frightened you a moment ago : 
by the word ^assumptions when I spoke of the 'assumption 
of MaryS as being — 

"Yes, because somehow, what will seem fine as a level for 
all humanity when we shall have arrived at it , seems — seems — 

She filled in the pause: "Would you say, seems objectionable 
for a few men and women to yearn toward as a reasonably- 
to-be-evolved functional potency of the whole race?^' 

"I suppose so,ss said he, wondering at his encroaching sense 
that ideals founded on a principle that must be faithfully 
practicalized before the ideal becomes Real, are often hidden 
from woman’s courageouly swift-assimilation, by men, who, 
like St. Augustine (while willing to spend time praying to 
God to give them the grace of continence) privately add to 
their more public-prayers the qualifying words, 'but not 
immediately.’ 

Just as they had left the cars Frantze raised his hat to two 
women, who bowed winsomely to him and looked critically 
at Ishtar. There scarcely could be met a more nearly perfected 
beauty after his type than Frantze presented. And that 
all acquaintance (Ishtar included) knew better than did he. 
For like most fair-complexioned men and women he saw 
little that was attractive in it, however clear or fine its con- 
comitants might be. 

The greetings that had passed had had something in them that 
showed Ishtar the flattery that probably met him everywhere 
outside the home. Thinking of this, as he walked a step in 
the rear she looked up back full in his face just as he bent 
over, looking at her. Her eyes large and peculiar under 
her dark brows as they were raised, searching for what she 
wished to comprehend, seemed challenging a response concern- 
ing his welfare. 

His fingers closed over the hand that hung at her side. "I 
shall finish things tonight”, he said, scarce audibly. 


Who Builds ? 


185 


CHAPTER XI. 

HOW CAN I STEADILY KEEP BODY, SOUL, SPIRIT AND THE RE- 
SULTS OF EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES UP TO THE LEVEL OF THE 
THREE-FOLD-POWER WHOSE IMPULSIONS FROM THE FIXED 
CENTER WITHIN, WORK OUT THE UNIFICATION OF CIRCUM- 
FERENCES? 

T hat evening Ishtar was so long out and about (as she 
called her work-world) that the twilight had deep- 
ened when she came through the room where the others were 
sitting. That is, Geraldine was sitting there, Frantze was 
walking about, at times, tarrying near Ishtar^s desk, then 
going back to Geraldine, trying to bring himself into right 
relations with his own principles and the complex circum- 
stances which bound him up with her. 

Ishtar crossed directly to the alcove, where her writing table 
stood near to the French window which opened upon a little 
piazza that led down the steps to the garden road. It was not 
unusual for her to work all the evening at this desk, near to, 
yet secluded from the other occupants of the large room. So 
when she came in, full of business, her course was seldom in- 
terrupted until she had disengaged herself from the load of 
things crowding on her attention. Therefore, tonight, there 
was nothing unusual in her swift flit to the seclusion where 
quiet voices would not disturb her, nor, her presence there, 
interfere with conversation. 

She saw at a glance, Geraldine^s arched brows were raised 
as also were the barriers between her and Frantze. 

The fact was, Frantze wanted Geraldine to release him from 
bonds which, unless they were to be a mutual, final matter, 
had long enough bound him to her. The air seemed full of 
that fact, as Frantze said quietly, ‘^Geraldine, my heart is 
bound up in my family! Tell me freely what troubles you 
and give me a chance to meet your wishes. 


186 


Who Builds ? 


Geraldine^s dark eyes were narrowing down as against 
a dazzling light. The same peculiarity was often in Land- 
seer^s blue eyes when questionings-unmanageable lent them 
a look of bewildered misery. Frantze saw it, and asked 
himself, ^was there also a look of hate creeping into them?^ 
No, he told himself, it was suffering; that inexplicable suffer- 
ingy which from childhood had made her so difficult to deal 
with. He knew by experience that whatever he should say 
or do, would lead into a bickering too childish for them at this 
time of their lives. His becripplement was that he could not 
say he loved her with a love on which marriage is fittingly 
based; yet owing to other circumstances he felt he would be 
a poltroon if he did not make her his wife if she would permit 
it. And yet again, he felt annoyed at having to go over this 
matter in a way that assumed her preference for him. What 
had there ever been in her attitude or words to show more or 
as much as the ordinary kindliness that a sister feels for a 
brother? 

Very well then, why did she not say so, like a womanly 
maiden. His look practically uttered his thought; and as if 
for reassurance he glanced at the bright head bowed over the 
business account. Then, halting, turned back to Geraldine 
saying:— 

^^Come Geraldine, this is no new matter. I ask you defi- 
nitely will you meet the wish with which your father honored 
me, and permit me to be the faithful husband — 

The look in her eyes stopped him. He covered his from it. 
For like one breathing hushedly in ambush, she watched him 
through her eyelashes, then: — 

‘‘This play is useless!” he ejaculated. “Let me understand 
you one way or another.” 

No answer, but that inexplicable look, like one cowering 
till Fate decreed doom. He glanced at Ishtar, then arose, 
hesitated, took two steps toward her; but her head bowing 
more closely to her book caused him to turn back exclaiming 
“Geraldine?” 

“Don’t tarry, you would better go into the other room.” 

“Geraldine, you are wishing me to misunderstand you. 
You cannot misunderstand me. In any case I am Frantze, 
your respectful, honorable brother — ” 


Who Builds ? 


187 


A muffled cry, thick with heart misery smote him. 

^^You are ill,^^ he said, ^^and I never have been nearer to it. 
Answer and settle the matter at once. So much is your duty. 
Will you marry me?^^ 

The word duty, acted like sand in the eye. 

“What do you know of my duty,^^ she said, “or of my prob- 
lems and perplexities? Manage your own affairs if you can.^’ 

Ishtar suddenly arose and came to Frantze, saying: 

“This is my brother too. And I am your sister and his, 
and I choose to tell you, that frankness and consideration for 
others are simple essentials. Why is not your conduct toward 
Frantze as full of those graces as his, is toward you?’^ 

“Well Madame,^^ said Geraldine, when she had caught her 
breath; “are you attempting to instruct me?” 

“I am attempting to ^exercise fidelity to right, said Ishtar. 
“I mean to ‘pursue it with resolution.’ You are robbing 
Frantze of time and freedom. You are sowing wormwood 
for yourself and others, as long ago in our garden, you said 
you should do, if you chose.” 

Geraldine had shrunken together as if at the voice of fate; 
but by the merest shadow of a change in attitude and expres- 
sion she took on an air of languid scorn, looking through her 
eyelashes, and repeating “Are you instructing me?” 

“Geraldine, my sister, you don’t seem to comprehend — ” 

“No? Then pity my imbecility and go back to your books.” 

“Don’t mind,” said Frantze, who had not taken his eyes 
off from the heroic face. “This is the way things are between 
us, and I don’t know as Geraldine means they shall be any 
better.” 

“Not?” said Geraldine, “then I wonder it does not occur 
to you to leave the family altogether.” 

Frantze glanced around, then bowing low and lingeringly, 
went out into the night. 

They were a tense set. The primeval fires burned, not 
smudged nor smouldered in them: because self-expression 
(not self-repression), self-invigoration and self-sustentation 
(not self-devitalization) had made them sovereignly self- 
poised and self-conscious of their right to do right as each com- 
prehended his relation to right. 


188 


Who Builds ? 


Geraldine only did not know with certainty who she was, 
nor her place nor province in life. It had once been so with 
Frantze, but a change had come. 

She realized that her lack of self-knowledge, chaining and 
chafing her spirit, made her act like one deranged. There 
was nothing she could do about it. She had to endure and 
wait as her mother endured and waited. 

The clock struck ten; then eleven. Geraldine sat motion- 
less, thinking on past and future things. The clock struck 
twelve. With the echo of its last stroke, Ishtar was stand- 
ing before Geraldine saying, in a voice which to her sounded 
far away: — 

Do you see the things of horror you are bringing into your 
life and Frantze^s? You are driving him to ruin. You will 
make his name — 

“Take that back^^ said Geraldine, springing to her feet 
and grasping Ishtar^s arm. 

“It is the truth. You strain his nerves and darken his 
life. You — 

“Take it back^^ said Geraldine hoarsely, tightening her 
grasp on Ishtar^ s arm. 

“Not if you strike me with that raised hand of yours. 

Geraldine wavered, then, “Take it back’^ she cried again, 
as if in mortal terror, unconsciously imbedding her fingers 
in Ishtar^s arm, repeating as in an agony, “Take it back, 
take it back I tell you!'' 

“It is tru— " 

Ishtar, fainting, fell. 

The blood of men who generation after generation had 
been fighters by sea and land, was in the veins of these daugh- 
ters; and it had grown none the less relentless in purpose 
though they and others had had to use other means of defense 
and offense than the shining blade and gun. 

Ishtar quickly sprung up from Geraldine's ministrations, 
finding strong arms about her, and Geraldine whispering and 
confessing, and saying, as if it were the last cry, 

“Ishtar, you see, you see, I do — not know everything!" 

“Well, who supposed you did?" stumblingly replied Ishtar. 

“That is my whole trouble: — a lack of — absolute knowl- 
edge" — she moaned. “I am just where I must know the 
rest, before I can go on.'! 


Who Builds ? 


189 


^^You will go crazy, Geraldine, if you don^t give up that 
search into those miserable matters,’^ said Ishtar. 

^^But you don^t half comprehend, Ishtar. I have even 
sometimes thought of — of, well, that if Frantze freely, of 
his own accord urged me tremendously, IVe even thought of 
marrying him in order to be able thus to learn from him, the 
things which he knows, but which he does not know how to 
utilize.^’ 

^^That, Geraldine, would be the most fruitless reason for 
marrying the average man,^^ said Mrs. Landseer coming in 
just then. And in the swift glance which passed between 
herself and Ishtar was carried the idea, that Geraldine^s 
emphasis on those words, had placed the implied possibility 
among the most impossible of all deeds. 

Then she bade the kittle maids go to their rest and leave 
trouble alone till it came to them.’ 

A few days later, Ishtar received a word from Frantze tell- 
ing her he was with Mr. Konnyngscrown in Washington. 

Then she renewedly took up her work, holding aloft her 
creed, — ^The weaker the body, the more it commands; the 
stronger the body, the more it obeys.’ For this was her 
war-cry against the long permitted incursions of that army 
of imbeciles, with which General Debility devastates society. 
But nevertheless, in these days, Ishtar began to feel that dry- 
suction of vein and brain which, betimes, takes hold on the 
daring soul who (before ^loneliness inures to Oneliness’) pre- 
sumes to be Itself: its Whole-Self! The Self which is not the 
mere outer, seeming self: but the Self that is Greater than 
the self, which is as yet-revealed. 

Then as if a flash-light were thrown on this Great-Estate 
into the inheritance of which she had to enter, she asked her- 
self, ^^how can I bring and then, steadily keejp body, soul, 
spirit and the results-of-external-activities, up to the level 
of the Three-fold-power: whose impulsions from the fixed- 
center works out toward the unification of circumferences?” 
She wondered whether she ought to let Geraldine’s perplexi- 
ties, lay hold on her: further than to remind Geraldine that 
each must hunt up her own life-roots: — meanwhile letting 
no barriers come up between them as sisters, because of mere 
passing perplexities. Perplexities which were built on noth- 


190 


Who Builds ? 


ing tangible enough to stand had they not been bolstered up 
by secrecies, square lies and the superstitions under which 
were hidden the scientific facts which, at this epoch should 
be fully comprehended. Ishtar’s very presence carried to 
Geraldine^s perturbed soul a guess at these facts. But her 
sight of Ishtar^s possession of ^self-composure’ did not enhance 
her own. Like Lamed, she felt it impossible to discuss prob- 
lems the intangibility of which seemed to her but part of her 
own unreported (and therefore to-be-discovered) back his- 
tory concerning past-lives. 

Neither did she feel ready to Get old matters drop’: and 
have faith that Hhey were all right’ — until she exhumed them 
and saw for herself how far they were right and how far they 
were so far wrong as to make it her business to Right up the 
Results of them according to her best ability. 

So she got away to the telescope-room again determined 
to take up the life of a recluse in her own home (her ^dear, 
dear Home’) for as long as she saw fit. Here she deter- 
mined, Time should be to her as if it were not, until she had 
availed herself of William Lilly’s promise, made in 1674, that 
he would, in his astrology so teach the ^student that he could 
cast a horoscope and calculate coming events.’ 

Mr. Konnyngscrown had once lightly said to Geraldine, — 
^'Leo must have been in aspect with Herschel at the time 
of your nativity.” And never forgetting it, she had hunted 
up the matter in the weird old book and had found that it 
said : — 

^^The nature of Herschel is extremely evil. If ascendant 
at the time of birth, it will cause the native to be of an ex- 
tremely eccentric disposition; pursuing uncommon and ex- 
traordinary objects; one who despises the track of custom 
and is abrupt in manners. 

Whatever good he may produce will be of a sudden kind 
and quite out of the ordinary course of things. Persons 
whose minds are influenced by this planet are unsettled, par- 
tial to travelling, extraordinary in ideas and given to the study 
of antiquity; yet likely to strike out many novelties. His 
(Herschel’s) conjunctions, parallels, and ill-aspects produce 
evil generally of a very sudden and uncommon nature, but 
in a far less degree than Saturn or Mars. His good aspects 


Who Builds ? 


191 


produce benefits in the same way. He causes benefits and 
troubles by means of public bodies and writers.’^ 

Geraldine had thoroughly accepted the reading of the 
Herscheline nature as if it were the reading of her own. 

Her chief comfort was getting to base itself upon the idea 
that this horoscope forecast her coming importance to the 
world at this crisis. Like every intelligent person, she felt 
she had a right to a self-elected place in the world^s work. 
She loved to work and to be not beholden to any one for 
her bread nor for her right to use her brain in coming to con- 
clusions regarding the existence, potency, purposes and claims 
of her Maker on her, and of her claims on her Maker. 

She wanted to be distinctly serviceable to her Maker and 
to his creatures in order that (as her mother explainingly 
had said,) ^He should see of the travail of His soul and be 
satisfied.' 

Scriptures and teachings generally which bore on the point 
of getting one's desires and being ^satisfied' definitely and 
promptly (whether the Desirer were God or a creature of 
God) keenly attracted Geraldine's attention just as teachings 
that bore on the wisdom of ^accepting what is, so as to make 
it to become what it should be' attracted Ishtar's attention. 
The soldierly characteristics that were rampant in the family 
led Geraldine to believe, that ^each is a fighter but should 
fight under the leader he elects to serve.' Ishtar's more 
embracive memory of the fights of the past gave her to know 
that not more fighting but a better utilization of the knowledge 
of the jolly of fighting was the work of Intelligence at this 
epoch. 

Mrs. Landseer had seen the difference in these character- 
istics, but had not referred to it particularly: leaving each, 
uninterfered with, to preserve her inborn relations to what 
each had to do. 

But now Geraldine was whelmed in that sense of the noth- 
ingness and uselessness of all effort; which ‘sense' often over- 
whelmingly prostrates a soul, wearied by searching into the 
greatness of Creation's way. Of what use was her star-gazing? 
Did she even know Herschel to be her planet? And if it were, 
how could she always make the crisis of an hour await, till 
the Heavens were rightly aspected for the deed? 


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About her were books, charts and figures of the Heavens. 
She glanced at them, weariedly wondering what was the use of 
them, or, of anything else that she or any one else had done or 
ever could do while the sidereal system, en masses travelled over 
the blue vault: and millions of billions of stars, unknow- 
able and undiscoverable, were forcing forward events, un- 
imaginable in their divine or deathly portents: unresistedly 
dealing out what they could, unstayable in their course by 
man or — 

She reined in her onrushing thoughts. No! Not un- 
stayable by God. She did not say that! She did not think 
that! For the hymn of all hymns to her was one that taught, 

'*The spacious firmament on high: 

With all the blue, ethereal sky, 

And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 

Their Great Original, proclaim. ^ ^ 

And now with its repetition there came to Geraldine a sight 
of Creative-action which, freeing her from all sense of lone- 
liness and nothingness, set her soul aflame with the Joy of 
that Celestial Realm whose power and glory the starry-spaces 
but dimly had pictured forth. Bringing her to question — 

Was it possible, that for the last ten years she chiefly had 
been seeking to protect herself from God? She had called 
that power, ^Fate,’ but she meant — she must have meant — 
the Great Creative Power whose Might, Skill and Majesty 
even the Heaven-of-Heavens cannot contain. 

She realized that for years she had been on guard lest she 
should take irrevocable steps: as if instead, by doing noth- 
ing she might arrest the sway of universal action. And to 
that end she had kept Frantze waiting (as it were) amid 
scenes, none of which should be rolled on to the stage until 
she had decided what character in what drama she would 
elect to make the leading part by playing it herself. 

Yet in all that she did there had been an attentive recog- 
nition of a power which, while it makes for righteousness, 
does not look on wrong with the least degree of allowance. 
For in childhood the unvarying law which works through 
nature, giving for crop just that of which the seed planted 
was the infallible precursor, had laid hold on her admiration. 


^Yho Builds f 


193 


reverence and obedience. And it was exactly because of her 
desire to hold herself allegiant to that powerful Law that 
she had so critically steadied herself against the current: 
being flung on the rocks this side and that, as she believed, 
while yet in her strugglings each time she had struck the 
opposite shore, a little further up stream. 

True: all these years these exploits had been chiefly carried 
forward in ‘imagination’s debatable-land.’ But what of that? 
It is in ‘imagination’s dehatable-\Q,\id^ that all good as well as 
evil growths, have their beginnings. 

In that land then she had dwelt, impelled by the desire 
to know all about everything that Life had to give her in ex- 
change for herself. For she had never forgotten Konnyngs- 
crown’s question on this point of ‘exchange.’ But thus far, 
nothing that external Life had shown her, seemed to her, a 
just exchange for the Geraldine that she felt herself potentially 
to be. 

Therefore, she had not by irrevocable deed robbed herself 
of the power of choice: the retention of which power, she 
valued, because by the use of untrammelled Choice, character 
is built. 

All she could say to comfort herself, was, she still stood 
this side of ‘the threshold,’ — a frightened thing truly: yet 
she believed, free to answer for herself, what she would do 
with Geraldine Landseer. 

Having come thus far she faced her need for a tangible 
philosophy of Life per se: a philosophy with such ‘a soul of 
certainty’ back of it, as would make her love life as intelli- 
gently as she now distrusted it. She wanted a knowledge 
of the workings of the Life-Principle: that she might love 
the Principle-of-Life in persons at whatever stage they might 
stand relative to the knowledge of its use! 

She wanted to be rid of her ghastly sense that nothing 
(at this epoch) was worth doing and no attainment was worth 
gaining. 

One part of her mind knew better than to fall into a dis- 
belief in the Goodness of Life. But the other, (was it more 
interior?) seemed always to have known that beauty, wealth 
and the ready worship which some men give to the possessors 
of these transient things, had so palled on her in other incar- 


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Who Builds ? 


nations that all she wanted of them now was, to have them 
show her that they really held some interior benefit which 
could be generously utilized by her for others. 

Grasping her head and drawing a long breath, she set her- 
self to recall a past incident which had had to do with a time 
when once she had died, like Rider Haggard’s 4000-year-old- 
^^She”: but to be next conditioned as were the three enterror- 
ized-creatures, pictured in the ^Monkey-carved Stable at 
Nikko’: determined as were they, in the next incarnation 



to let their ears hear nothing that was evil : their mouths speak 
nothing that was evil: their eyes see nothing that was evil.’ 

And now she set herself to find out how long ago it was that 
she a human being had accepted the practice of that monkey 
Law, as a step on the way towards the re-solution of Life’s 
great problem. 

As she thought on it, she felt in the very-substance of her 
brain that it was so long ago as to have become so fully af- 
terward actuated into character, that, in her last incarna- 
tion, its practice, had made her to appear as a blind, deaf 
and dumb man. As she needs must have appeared, living 
as she then did when evil and evil-continually was every- 
where seen and heard and to he spoken against unless one 
was willing to be an acquiescent non-entity concerning the 
fact that in homes as well as in houses, women were the re- 



Who Builds ? 


195 


cipients of whatever swashbucklers in church and state saw 
fit to precipitate on them. Because the Soul of Society had 
rotted in the Body Politic. 

And now Geraldine, deluged with the sight of that soul- 
decadence which is so much viler a decay than anything 
bodily can ever be, was again, staggered mentally, in the 
mirage-of horrors, which from childhood had infuriated her 
with hate for those who had done womanhood such harms; as 
she longed in return to do them if but they could be done 
out of arm^s reach of creatures whom she distrusted with 
an anguish that would have been maniacal, had it not been 
^kept up to the business of discovering whence in the souls 
of such men (so called) had arisen this male-ignance (or 
male-ignorance) whichever it was? 

Ishtar felt it was not requisite to go thinking over such far 
back history. And Geraldine allowed, that perhaps it was not 
requisite for all persons. But that, as for her, it was in her 
own history that she needed to be versed: rather than in that 
of fellows, who go raging and sending others raging and kill- 
ing one another up and down the earth. Her history, past, 
present and future, was that of Hhe Eternal Feminine,^ whose 
business is Life-giving! Lamed had said it! And Geraldine 
no more had doubted it, than she had doubted the alphabet as 
a source on whence to draw in fashioning written and to-be 
written communications. 

She had accepted the fact that woman, like The Christ, 
had come to earth in order that humanity ‘might have life 
and have it more and more abundantly.’ Not necessarily did 
that mean marriage: though marriage meant children! But 
why have children when so many of them were buried in baby- 
hood. While as for those who grew up, governments were 
paying out lots and lots of money to get them killed off so 
that there would be more standing room left for the few whom, 
it was desired, should rule the earth. But to her mind con- 
stant birthing of children with as constant a killing of them 
off to keep the population down was a method which did 
not seem to be on the way to ‘have life more and more 
abundantly.’ 

But what was that hymn they sang once in a church about 
‘carrying on a New Creation’? Was it anything to do with 


196 


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J. J. G. Wilkinson’s idea that God did not make men as men 
make machines? But, made them as a result of those fre- 
quent choices of acts: which choices, mould-mind, and build 
Character; which Character is the Man? 

^^That is very likely,” thought Geraldine. ^^And I do 
hope the newly-created creature, will be something in the line 
of a Mind-made Man. Why not?” 

This notion brought her back to her reviewal of that past in 
which she believed she had attempted to see, hear and speak 
nothing evil. A past filled with the injustice of creatures 
who held women responsible for men’s doings, while hold- 
ing women subject to man-made and administered laws. 

The question as she now attempted to face it was, would 
a fair field with no favors or special privileges allowed to either 
man or woman, bring about Justice to all? Or would woman 
(as an older-brother) always tend toward that mingling of 
mercy with justice, which (including as it usually does a re- 
cession from justice) brings on woman the ordinary reproba- 
tion of her, as a Tempter: and brings on society man’s undue 
self-glorification and artificial self-exhibits of himself, as the 
‘best fellow.’ 

Was it the leniency of the Elders, (the considerately kind 
Seniors) which had brought about conditions that had given 
Konnyngscrown to say, ‘Women were the curse of young-men’s 
lives ’ ? 

“Whatever had been the cause” thought Geraldine, “Kon- 
nyngscrown lapsed into an unreasoning-fury; or he could never 
have done as he did, when I — a little, kind twelve-year-old 
girl — asked him to talk over his troubles and let us together 
fix up everything right for every body. 

Then she caught herself up : determining to stop that train 
of thought and, instead, try to act on Lamed’s assertion that, 
a person’s discourtesies should only be noticed sufficiently 
to get at a comprehension of that person’s inequalities and 
ailments : so that, being equipped with a knowledge of all the 
facts of that person’s case, one then would be equal to meeting 
emergencies. “And that” thought Geraldine “was just what 
I was trying to do when I was twelve years old. But, ‘ine- 
qualities and ailments’ are terribly tender words for Lamed 
to have used about the awful-furies and manners which sent 


Who Builds ? 


197 


Konnyngscrown howling and calling me names and shaking-in- 
the-air our good Frantze, all about something or other concern- 
ing which he had not the reasonableness to speak-out plainly. 

^^He surely had no right to deluge me with his ^Conditions': 
for that is what my Lamed calls such plights/’ thought Ger- 
aldine. ^^She says, we women must be intelligently patient! 
For it is all a ^ condition resulting from the age-long antagonism 
which exists, because one of the antagonists (Hhe younger 
brother’) age-long has tended to be the crucifier of the 'Elder.’ 
And she considered this was because many of them were 
conditioned in ignorance relative to the cause of their ten- 
dency to desire something which they thus inordinately desire 
to-possess only for as long as they do not get it 1 This condi- 
tioning Lamed says, 'men call Love.’” 

Geraldine had been reading a large part of what she was re- 
viewing, from papers on the desk before her: some of which 
were in the Mother’s hand-writing. The last of which filled 
her with horror. She could not believe it. For her auricular- 
nerve still thrilled and her heart’s blood still chilled under 
the echoes of the anguish that fired Jerome’s splendid-voice 
that awful night as he had cried, 'My Lost Love!’ Un- 
buriable! Come back to do — 

' ' W HAT, had she come back to do ? What did he fear of her ? ’ ’ 
wailed Geraldine noiselessly: her soul torn with longing pity 
for (not him, but) her whom he hated so lovingly: no, loved 
so hatingly that the sight of him 'in that hell-hot-hurricane ’ 
(as Tama had called it) had shivered to atoms in Geraldine’s 
soul all tolerance of anything to do with this mad-man’s 
mania or 'condition’ called love: a condition of which the 
fearsome Tama (once a slave), rent with fury against it, had 
said "Dogs such are. Tousling in the mud what they are sick 
of, yet returning ever and anon to it as if 'to their own vomit.’ ” 

Repulsed agonizingly from the horror of Tama’s speech 
(as if from some dread, over-passed personal experience) this 
quivering maiden, disavowing all pity, with a deadly finality 
said : 

"For all of which God, if he chooses, may forgive such blood- 
hounds, I never will.” 

Then face forward onto the fioor she fell, disabled by that 
agony which comes to a soul when the rended nerves and 


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wrenched fibres are in fact tearing marrow from bone and 
chyle from blood, as woman whom God made to supremely 
help man, sees herself stultified by laws which make men into 
brutes, and women into rended and ragged ministrants to 
their brutishness. 

The torture of hate is worse than death agony. For death 
dulls the power to feel; while hate of the folly that injures 
man, standing at the Thermopylean-Pass, gathers into its 
own breast the massed spears of man’s enemy, which enemy 
is man. 

And now massing these spears in her heart, at this Pass 
stood Geraldine. 

For while at first she had been praying that she might help 
open the gates of that paradise of which her mother knew, 
a sight of man’s erroneous treatment of man had hurled her 
into the conditions of the unforgiving damned. 

She knew this had taken place, and knowing it became but 
the more filled with hate, which Hate doubly afflicts the woman 
who hates Hate, as greatly as she does the conditions which 
arouse it. Yet she cried ^‘Lord I confess it. I would rather 
he accursed by hating such Tove’ (?) than to live approved 
even by Thee, if deluged in such love.” 

And a’tremble she waited, braced to meet what she had 
challenged and as if substantiating her claim to it inaudibly 
she whispered: — ‘‘Die I can, but save men’s souls, chained 
woman cannot. And enslave men’s senses intelligent woman 
will not. Rather than that, let the pit open for me, and give 
me there some cleanly curse where fiends at least are bodiless!” 

Then struck up as suddenly as she had fallen, she sprung 
out on to the telescope balcony, enclosed as were its towering 
projections midst boughs of densely foliaged trees; except at 
the space where-through now the afterglow of the setting sun 
shined on clouds that, alight with nature’s fires, were (like 
her soul’s realm) radiant with the internal fluctuations of motion 
and emotion. 

A’strain there she stood, waiting to see, hear or by some grace 
learn if anywhere there were one Just Man, whose justice-pro- 
pelled-pulsations had perfected him. 

To the west of the sun-blotched sky (and fast closing in upon 
it) lay the darkening region from where, the sun, sunken away, 
gave place to the quickening shades of evening. 


Who Builds ? 


199 


Between the blackness and the brilliancy she stood with 
hands clasped to her heart from whence came none of the 
breath whose persultations were inwardly conserved under 
the arrest of her etherealized necessity for a sight of, at least, 
the adumbration of a Just man. 

To see the full blaze of the glory of such a being she asked 
not. She but prayed to catch some hint, some resemblance, 
some adumbration of a Just man. 

But, as seeing herself in a glass darkly, instead she but caught 
a sight of the condition which a moment before had brought 
on her a deluge of influences as opposed as were the colorings 
of the oncoming darkness and the afterglow in the visible heav- 
ens overhead. 

Then her pulses sending the blood thundering through ears 
and brain, fetched on their waves, as from memory’s heights, 
the old words: 

— when I was praying at the gates of paradise The 
Angel of The Lord appeared saying, I am appointed to preside 
over human bodies. I tell you do not pray unto the Lord 
in tears — ” and with a near unsheathing of her soul she list- 
ened, dreadingly doubting as to what this voice might portend. 
For she had heard that spirits there were who could deceive 
the very elect, in fact came from the pit to which she had de- 
clared her willingness to descend rather than to make a pit 
of this world so fair by enslaving men’s senses to woman’s 
misapprehended charms. 

Was it that she had thereto descended? Could it be that 
the etherealization, which she had half-repulsed and had half- 
entertained, was but the pleasant-buoyancy of the bodilessnessy 
which reigned in the pit-below? And was she even now 
ecstacized by the nitrous-air of heats infernal ? Which floating 
her into union with ‘the bright star of the Morning’ had 
touched her with the Madness of Lucifer? And was it but 
HIS voice which proclaimed him as ‘The Angel-of-The Lord’? 
The Appointee, who should preside over Human bodies? 

Plunging to the battle, rebuffingly she cried, 

“Not with such raff shall my rage for God identify me. 

“Demoniac-beast maliflc if you are, go back to the pit whence 
you came, if thence you are arrived? 

“And now my God: I-say my God, — send me (and fail not) 


200 


Who Builds ? 


a sight of ONE Just man made perfect ! Or thunder it through 
realms Universal that Justice lives not nor ever lived/' 

Crimsoned on a cross mid the clouds of the east she saw 
Him: The Just Man! 

For Just He was, in that he was the justifier of that per- 
fected Being who had taken on Herself for his sake, the revil- 
ings of vile-men who had reviled her because, receiving God, 
she birthed His Son ! 

Then The breath. The Fire, The Torrents (of not revels but) 
of the revelations of LiFE-Immaculate came upon her: adum- 
brating the glory, majesty, and millennial-conditions again to 
be paralleled when at the rising of the Radius Vector, Sons 
will be born of Spirit. 

Later, Geraldine could but remember the experience she 
had had in that testing form of faith,' which had held her 
to the repulsion of a danger, intangible but real: uplifting her 
from scorn of the general-dearth of Just men by giving her 
a sight of One, whose justice toward and explication of woman's 
sacrificial-virtue, had brought on him at the hands of men 
the fate that follows Hhat Kind' who, living with the vile, 
talk to the vile as if they were virtuous and competent to com- 
prehend Hhe invisible things of God.' 

There came a knock at the door. Throwing a shawl over 
the charts and figures of the Heavens, with a hush of breath 
and a glance at the last glow upshooting in the east, opening 
the door, Geraldine stood with it in hand as Tama always did. 

The glow lighted her hair to a purple black and flecked 
her eyes, a'flame as they still were with wrath at the unjust 
sacrifice of the Just Man, whose future victory, should he come 
again, she felt ready to rend the hells and scale Heaven's 
heights, to secure. 

Ishtar, not unobservant of conditions, stood enhaloed in 
the light that fell on them through the window above, as 
silently placing a chair in it she said, 

^^Sit here, and let me brush out your hair: your beautiful 
hair! Then we will go down to supper. We are crossing the 
threshold. After supper we will lay our plans together." 

Acquiescently Geraldine took the chair offered her and 


Who Builds ? 


201 


let Ishtar brush out the silken sheen which fell nearly to the 
floor. As she brushed, Geraldine held her head this way and 
that, in the enjoyment of meeting the strokes of the brush: 
meanwhile once or twice looking furtively up through the 
veil and finally saying, 

^^Lay our plans? We will see about that. The point I 
now make is, when I step down stairs that will end the Chapter 
which I will call ^On the threshold.’ Then will begin the dis- 
closure of things relative to matters the other side of the thresh- 
old. 

Those matters will be arranged as I choose. 

‘^Such children as we, mature early. Under such loose 
rein as held us, we come to know ourselves wisely and well. 

“I am ready to go down.” 


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Who Builds ? 


CHAPTER XII. 

‘‘He that chiefly owes himself to himself is the substantial man /' — Sir 
Thomas Browne. 

/^N coming down stairs, it was evident to Geraldine that 
plans had been perfected while she was in retreat. And 
in her impulse to never be set aside by others, whatever in 
that line she might choose to do with herself for the sake of 
others, she proposed on this occasion (as always) to discount 
the actions of others, and then bring them in with a balance in 
their favor. 

The next day after breakfast, she entered the room where 
a large table had been placed for ‘cutting out work,’ and lay- 
ing on it a roll of black silk and other new valuables, without 
ostentation she proceeded to spread patterns thereon: some- 
what mystifying Ishtar who, knowing the condition of the 
family income and expenses, looked on, wondering in what 
corner of the family-pocket-book had been found a hundred 
dollar note , — not of her acquaintance. While as for Mrs. Land- 
seer, she looked at Geraldine in a way quite indescribable. 

Geraldine caught the expression: but proceeded to adjust 
the linings and silk, twice turning with dilated nostrils and 
then swallowing her palpitations, went on with her work. 

Mrs. Landseer, gathering up some sewing, concerning which 
she had consulted Ishtar and telling Tama to bring the muslin 
to her chamber when it was basted, left the room. 

To invigorate the mental atmosphere, Ishtar reviewed some- 
thing which her garden had told her before breakfast that 
divine morning. So, when Geraldine covertly glanced to 
see what Ishtar thought of that silent passage of arms, the 
tranquil countenance had its effect; and the words which 
came were not too foreign to the occasion, as Ishtar said : — 

“You see, we are all so active and independent that we 
never know where to find each other! So it is no wonder 


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203 


that we astonish strangers! We have 'cut off^ from every body 
who might distract our attention from our main-design, so, 
like Eve, — we have our world before us!^' 

^^The past of the ' Ariosto-Rhoensteine : Landseers,^ is im- 
possible to be set aside Ishtar!^^ said Geraldine (emphasizing 
Lamed^s use of that business-title) adding "We are as far 
as possible from being cut off or isolated, as you call it. Our 
past is connected with the present; and the present with our 
future; and, as you know, our present, past and future are 
of an upgathering, historic quality which, in spite of our wishes, 
make of us public benefactors or the reverse. Blood is destiny 
and fate! I know that after all I am to walk the ways of 
one just like me. In fact, I like her and am determined to 
help her! Did you see the look your mother gave me? I did 
not ask to be born a hurricane or simoon. But I don’t care. 
If there is one thing that impels me to strike out into the 
grandest life a woman ever lived, it is to take down the general 
distrust of me: as if I were 'a nacher-bad chile’ as Tama 
used to say. I’ll find out what ails folks about me, and then 
I’ll choose my path and punish or reward them. 

"It is strange, but sometimes I have a certainty that there 
is an influence to which I must succumb ; and things which I 
shall do after all my hesitation — in a sense — against my will. 
Sometimes I feel as if I were nothing but a machine: and yet, 
am afraid to step down stairs, as if everything depended on 
my next step, and as if, even to disturb the atmosphere with 
a thought would set in motion actual waves of influence. ThaVs 
why I will have no associates! I have a pre-vision of some- 
thing the other side of this home-threshold. But, I’d have 
you to know that I have not really committed myself to any 
course yet. I am ready for either, or for both. Why don’t 
you talk?” said Geraldine restlessly, breaking in on her mono- 
logue. 

"It may be you have undertaken to be Jehovah to your- 
self, Gerry! 'Path, Motive, Guide, Original and End’? If 
so, your task is hard; even though questions of self, receive 
undivided attention. You are burdening yourself with all 
your future and your 'past; instead of just living blithely in 
the present! It must be fatiguing. I have never had the 
first thought of the actual future, till last week; and that much 


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Who Builds ? 


even has seemed quite tiresome. Mr. Konnyngscrown wants 
me to take a school in Washington city; and I have decided 
to do so as I came to tell you last night. Even that much 
looking ahead seemed rather fatiguing to me!’^ 

It was astonishment which had caused Geraldine to permit 
Ishtar to complete the sentence; and now she burst out, 
declaring that when the name of Landseer was known in Wash- 
ington it should not be as that of a teacher in a public school. 

Ishtar explained that this was no new idea; that her busi- 
ness in the world was human-culture now, as it had been 
horticulture in the past; and that she should keep up her 
garden still. For that John^s brain and the other helpers 
would take care of it: — that she wished, in any case to spend 
some time at the seat of Government, in order to understand 
something about the machinery there. ^^I must live my 
own life'^ she said in finishing. 

It is not necessary to live ! But it is necessary to be decent,” 
said Geraldine sternly. 

^^My path to decency lies along the road of earning my 
own livelihood and of helping others to do the same.” 

‘^Then, why don’t you go on with your garden? People 
have got used now to seeing you disgrace yourself in that way.” 

^^My garden, my beautiful garden has largely done its work 
for and in me,” said Ishtar tenderly. 

^^Is it failing?” 

no. Mother Earth still yields full measure; and the 
last yield was the words, — ‘On, and up out of this place to 
a land I will show you.’” 

“I wish you would talk sense if you are going to talk at all,” 
said Geraldine after another baffled gaze. “You’ve dug over 
your old gardens and your bibles till people will think you’re 
as crazy as a lunatic! I call it degrading!” 

“Geraldine, why do you so hate Work? It is the exertion 
of one’s natural powers for the gratification of human wants and 
desires. ‘Hunger, thirst and need of shelter, love of the 
beautiful and love of humanity all impel us to work.’ What 
can you have against it?” 

“It’s beastly. That is what one side of me has against it,” 
she said laughing like one bewitched. 

“That’s exactly what it is not. It is highly Human! The 


Who Builds ? 


205 


beast and the savage do not ^work/ God and man, do! 
Ownership of a thing includes the voluntary exertion of indi- 
vidual 'power to render the thing claimed, serviceable to Hu- 
manity/’ 

‘‘Oh! You may sit there, quoting all the old school-books 
you choose; but all the same, it is an outrage on the blood in 
your veins, to be mixing yourself up with the masses ! So ! ” 

“If I had a thousand lives that is exactly what I would do 
for my nation, — mix myself up with the masses; — like yeast 
in the measure of meal, to raise them (if I am good yeast) 
by impregnating them with a sense of their individuality and 
their possibilities. But who is the yeast, and who are the 
raw particles of ground wheat? We are all mixed up now. 
To straighten up conditions all round, clear thinkers and staunch 
unselfish workers must just simply do their best on the spot 
they stand on, Geraldine. You have been deliberating for 
years: and I am sure you have no thought of turning your 
back now on the needs of the oncoming century ; no thought of 
doing anything to blight the prospects of unborn humanity! 
What you naturally will do is to stand in the advance-gMdirA 
for progress and for a universally-naifwmZ order.” 

“You are so queer!” said Geraldine. “You won’t find 
people in society going about brandishing the science of Eco- 
nomics and Moral Philosophy! All fine theories are not to 
be lived out to practical issues!” 

“But they are to be tested that the useless ones may be 
set aside. It is time high ideals were actuated into life. This 
is the new age, and you will find that at the opening up of 
the ‘Miracle in Stone’ (the Great Pyramid in Egypt) Truths 
there hidden will be revealed just in time to meet the wants 
of this scientific- age, which now demand ‘ rules and measure- 
ments ’: and an intellectual precision of judgment instead 
of religious passion. We have been well taught Geraldine, 
and we have chosen in perfect freedom.” 

“I have not chosen yet, I’d have you know,” said Geraldine. 

“I have! I have chosen to battle for half defeated human- 
ity; and to preach the achievement of health, self-poise and 
the possible completeness of each life in itself, for itself and 
for others, regardless of all discouraging fetters either of 
inheritance. Karma or of present environment.’! 


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Who Builds? 


^^You are not a fit exponent of those ideas. There’s not 
a tangle in your life. If I chose to settle to the horrible prob- 
lem, I could do this work better” said Geraldine after a pause. 
^^For — for reasons sufficient, I might choose to lead off in 
this thing,” added she, a fire lighting her eyes. ‘^In any 
case I don’t propose to have you go to Washington to intro- 
duce the Landseer name there, in the beggarly way you sug- 
gest!” 

‘^I’m going to mother with this work,” said Ishtar. She 
was very pale, for she had plenty on her nerves to carry, and 
Geraldine’s manner was indescribable. The fact was, Geral- 
dine suspected that Frantze was in Washington and that 
Ishtar knew it! Meanwhile Ishtar knew that her mother 
also thought he was still there. As for herself, she wished to 
act with no reference to that matter. She was glad that 
she so suddenly had been asked by Konnyngscrown to take 
a school there because she wished to Heach school,’ and was 
glad to have the opportunity of doing so in that city where 
so much which she wished to learn would open up before her. 

For the rest, she resolutely kept her mind off of the new 
element in her relations with Frantze which Geraldine forced 
upon her notice, and, indeed seemed almost to have forced 
into existence. 

The strain on Ishtar’s nerves was becoming great. Frantze 
had fled before it; so had Mr. Konnyngscrown as she fully 
believed, while Mrs. Landseer had chiefly left Geraldine to 
herself. But Ishtar held to Geraldine, true to the old part- 
nership in which she had said they would ‘wit together.’ 

Mr. Konnyngscrown had written from Washington but 
once; stating briefly that he could procure this school for her, 
and that he should spend the winter in that city. He had 
made no mention of Frantze. Ishtar had passed the letter 
to Geraldine. But when this did not seem to satisfy her, 
Ishtar said nothing more on the matter, leaving her to think 
what she chose, and to conduct as she saw fit. 

“Ishtar” said Mrs. Landseer, noticing the whiteness round 
her mouth, “Ishtar, get beauty and brightness out of life — 
my little day-laborer! get it this winter, I have never yet seen 
a woman’s life that was worth living: neither will any life 
be, till we have gained the right to live naturally, on our own 


Who Builds ? 


207 


intellectualized heights. Throw Geraldine off of your mind. 
Relate yourself to your own affairs! DonT discuss it!^^ 

Ishtar walked back to Geraldine, thinking, that the best 
way to avoid social, national and individual unpleasant col- 
lusion was to live above them: and that the way to brighten 
life, consisted in not darkening it. 

A little later, as Mrs. Landseer heard Geraldine moving 
about in her room, she joined Ishtar, partly to consult about 
some preparations for her departure and also to add a few 
words relative to the crisis, which she knew was now upon 
them. She heartily wished she could frankly tell both of the 
girls all that was back of the complications, and (apparently) 
unnecessary artificialities of affairs. But after coming to 
Ishtar to disclose some such untellable things, she, after all, 
only repeated her request that Ishtar should ^^get from the 
winter all the pleasantness it contained, and not wear her 
^ heart on her sleeve, for Daws to peck at.^” 

^‘Do you teach Geraldine that way?’' asked Ishtar. 

“We do not urge the Raven to secret treasures,” said Lamed, 
just as the door opened, and Geraldine stood inside of it with 
her back swiftly turned to the room, but with her head turned 
facing the room so that her chin was couched on her shoulder 
over which fell her long hair, while the room seemed filled 
with the gladness of a Hebe-like smile that disclosed pearly 
teeth as she glanced backward, under the apple raised between 
her eyes and those she met. Venus Vitrix stood confessed. 
With dominating displeasure Mrs. Landseer looked at Ger- 
aldine: but did not discountenance her — till, responsive to 
a change in Mrs. Landseer’s ^Aoi^^/i^-of-the-act, there came to 
Geraldine’s countenance, a lifting of brows which asked 
practically, “Do you see I know our secret?” — which change 
Mrs. Landseer met with a look of good fellowship: under 
which the diablerie of Geraldine’s artificiality, vanished: as 
she sank into a chair saying to Ishtar as Lamed walked out 
of the opposite door, 

“Your Mother knows whom I am like. You are going 
to seek your fortune. So am I! But I choose to first pick 
up a few dropped threads in the web of-fate. 

“That black silk (by the way) is for a whole suit for you. 
I ^earned it by the exertion of my powers,’ etc.,” she added 


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with a laugh and with a kiss on Ishtar^s astonished eyes. 
Then forgetting everything else she said: ^^Ishtar, you will 
have to write that letter to Washington over again. 

^^It has gone,” said Ishtar, ^^with the word ^ Spinster^ left 
afhxed to my signature. I wonder, seeing you are so fearful of 
acting for yourself, you should venture to act for others. How- 
ever, the word ^ Spinster^ is a term in law by which an un- 
married woman, without title or rank is designated. So 
it is quite correctly applied to me, as I take my place in the 
industrial-community . ^ ^ 

Geraldine had disfigured the letter in order to delay it. 
She caught her breath at this frustration of her plan: saying 
nervously, Something will come of this, different from what 
would have happened otherwise.” 

Perhaps so, and perhaps not. But in any event it will 
all work together for good to me and for all concerned.” 

‘‘That is just the reverse of what I always think about all 
these chances and changes! I donT dare to do anything 
because of ‘consequences.’ Yet I did dash off some stories 
to get that silk dress and those things for you. A little Sun- 
day school book for one thing; which I sold out-right instead of 
having it published myself. The manuscript reader wanted 
to tame down the girl’s speeches and doings a little; but I 
told him I had met the child myself, as you will readily believe. 
And I carried her through a revival, and simply made her 
say, think and feel all that I felt in one such evening. And 
she grew pious like you, only not so tame. It was a very 
natural story because the very thing that religiously might 
help me, of course helped her, and I just ‘in with it all.’ 

“I have tested what the life of a bee-feeder would be like. 
‘The Rhododendron of Trebizond’ is a flower which bees feed 
on. I deal with bees! I like workers! And when men are 
fine workers I forgive them for being men. They cease then 
to be honey-hunters; and are bees, and — and— well you may 
stare! But one day a month for a year, I have walked into 
Roxbury. I have twenty-five families there who are glad 
to see me for reasons more or less substantial. But I have 
not tried to make Roxbury ring with the name of Landseer, 
as some one has, this town. 

“‘Miss Rhodo,’ only is known among Roxbury poor folks. 


Who Builds ? 


209 


I have gotten six boys and three girls into employment by 
going to men of different firms. O, don^t take the trouble 
to express admiration. Sit a moment and I will show you 
‘^Miss Rhodo,” said Geraldine, leaving the room. 

After a while a tall woman entered, wearing a clinging, 
half-trailing shabby black dress. As she walked in, she apol- 
ogetically raised a long, rusty crepe-veil, showing gray hair 
banded low over the forehead and marks of care, between her 
eyes, with wrinkles which put the chin and mouth in paren- 
thesis. There were other lines starting out from the nose 
and leading off between the cheeks and chin unrecognizably 
metamorphosing Geraldine^s whole personnelle. Under the 
long crepe she wore a dense lace veil, close over her face: and 
her melancholy (yet pitifully helpful) expression, sent Ishtar 
off into peals of laughter. 

^^Mrs. Brown, — am Miss Rhodo. I saw in the papers 
that your husband was injured in the machinery at his work, 
and that you had two boys and a baby. I have but small 
means, myself. But I know a good man who has a coal- 
wharf. I may get you some fuel and possibly, a place where 
the oldest boy can earn enough to pay your rent,” — came 
forth from this personnelle in a tone, quite at-one with the 
kind of a muscularly-contracted nose that Miss Rhodo affected. 

Then, 

^^And I did, too,” said Geraldine, dropping the muscular- 
contraction, the tone, the bonnet and the veil, all at once: 
and looking more incongruous than ever as she stood forth 
in the gray hair, begrimed skin, wrinkles, and perfect youth- 
ful figure. did,” she repeated, ^‘and I found a homoeo- 
pathic physician who got the man well quickly and for noth- 
ing.” 

^^But if you had been found out in that disguise? Besides, 
how did you manage it every month?” 

Leave me alone for managing when it must be done in 
self-defense. I did not choose to be inundated with beggars 
here. Besides, Geraldine Landseer had not chosen that life. 
Of course I arranged everything so that discovery would 
have added only credit to the Landseer name. ^ Grand and 
good?’ — nothing of the kind. Of course it was disagreeable, 
the poverty, smells and dirt. But those women long for your 


210 


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coming, and the big boys all swear by you in spite of your 
wrinkles and dirt/' 

^^My wrinkles and dirt?" 

^^No," said Geraldine looking at her curiously, ^^you will 
never adopt wrinkles and dirt I am sure, — but I, — I like them. 
I feel natural and at rest in meek poverty; as though I had 
fallen to the lowest and had nothing worse to fear. And — 
and the business men, when they give help because poor 
people need it and not because a handsome woman asks for 
it seems lovable to me: and in that plight I can look at them 
with cordial gratitude and no danger. I like the looks of 
these eyes behind these smoked glasses better than I do my 
own — if they are my own," said Geraldine, falteringly, as 
with a passionate groan she threw herself head-long on the 
floor. 

Her gray hair fell about her wrinkled face and her shabby 
dress with its sombre crepe clung to her form. 

She was a horrible contrast to the image of triumphant 
beauty which, an hour before, had attitudinized with ‘‘stolen 
fruit" in hand, (whatever that may mean). 

In those few minutes Ishtar lived hours. It was to her 
as if years had intervened between the first tableau and this. 


Who Builds ? 


211 


CHAPTER XIII. 

^eat scholar in the highest sense is, not one who simply depends on 
an infinite memory but also on infinite and electric-power of combination, 
bringing together from the Four Winds, like the Angel of The Resurrec- 
tion, what else were dust from dead-men bones, into the unity of Breath- 
ing-Life. ^ ’ — De Quincey. 

A fter Ishtar had gone to Washington, Geraldine with 
Tamars help began at the top of the house to ^ right up 
everything.^ She had not gotten far on the way, before learn- 
ing lessons that caused her to look with respect at the shin- 
ing windows and general conditions of homes where ^Good 
Housekeeping^ reigned supreme whatever became of the home- 
making. 

“Really, it is something to be a good Housekeeper,^’ said 
she, confidentially to Mrs. Landseer, after a week expended 
in these efforts. And Tama, who for an incredible number 
of years had been doing what must be done, in our present 
isolated management, rose in her esteem as a good servant 
mustj in the esteem of a sensible woman, who tries to acquaint 
herself with the needs of the case, by even, for a very limited 
time giving an eye and hand to everything from top to (and 
through) the cellar. 

“What has come over you, Geraldine?” said Mrs. Land- 
seer, w'hen a week had gone by, and Geraldine’s enthusiasm 
had not. 

“I am trying to be good, simple and industrious,” she re- 
plied. Then they looked at each other and laughed: neither 
of them feeling very sure, this house-cleaning exemplification 
of goodness would hold out as a permanency. 

Just then they heard wheels on the driveway: and Frantze 
had sprung from the carriage and was saying “Auntie, I will 
tell you everything,” and then was halting before Geraldine: 
who, with hair done up in a kerchief in Tama’s style, and 
wearing a pair of cotton gloves which gave her fingers a chance 


212 


Who Builds ? 


to come out and take a look at conditions, — felt as well pleased 
with herself as when she was ^Miss Rhodo.’ And, glad that 
Frantze had gotten home she told him so taking his hand. 
He, with head on one side stood a moment, looking at her, 
as he had in boyhood: glad when she was glad but quite able 
to bear it when she was not. He was much bronzed and more 
robust than three months before, but the change in him was 
beyond the matter of color and weight. He placed three 
chairs near the door where there was a lovely breeze, group- 
ing them so that, with heads leaned together, they sat at once 
expectant of his first words: because of his evident readiness 
to ‘‘tell them all about the trip which he, with twenty-five 
men, had taken across the continent: each of whom, put a 
thousand dollars into a little mining scheme: some of whom 
got out of it, the experience (he said) and some, the money.^' 

“Which did you get?^’ said Geraldine. 

“By accident I got a little of each. Because as the fellows 
wanted me to go deeper into the second move they let me 
have a little luck on the first! But there was one man there, 
who was going to kill himself, because he had lost what I had 
gained. So I gave that to him, and it squared him; and got 
him back home all right, and finished such transactions for 
both of us.^^ 

Geraldine said nothing. 

“After that I went to Utah and looked into their peculiar 
marital (perhaps I should say parental) philosophy and the 
good principle on which part of it is founded. 

“Then I went through the Indian Reservations: looking into 
the reason back of their desire for nonconformity to Ameri- 
can-civilization. And I went clear across to the Pacific: and 
in fact, got into speech-making: always reminding people 
that Lincoln had said to the effect that even if some of the 
people were fools part of the time: all of the people were 
not fools all of the time. 

“I havenT that quite right: but the point is, it takes all 
the people of all the nations to get at all of the truth con- 
cerning matters of world-wide Common weal and Common- 
Wealth. And as we have a large majority of intelligent peo- 
ple (for women are people) it certainly is now much too 
late to repeat the old attempts, to dominate millions of 


Who Builds ? 


213 


persons by the establishment of either a would-be universal 
monarchy or a would-be-universal compulsory religion. For, 
as in the past, the Universal-monarchist and the would-be 
Universal Religionist (of whatever name) will fly at each 
other and fight over their old differences, with the result in 
the future which has been in the past: — that is, their differ- 
ences will be disseminated and freely discussed, instead of 
localized and secretly magnified. 

told them how it was in the time of the English or 
Welsh-Tudor’s victory over the House of York; when the 
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (encouraged by the fact that 
its Head was Emperor and King, as well as Head-of the Army 
and of the Executive) combined with the immense Spanish 
dominions to try to suppress public opinion; with the result 
that the People became impatient, and other sovereigns, 
influenced by National feeling, combined against Austria. 
If, instead of combining against, there had been enough of 
cool intelligence extant to, even have learned what the name 
Austria or Oesterreich meant and included, — and in what 
sense this Ostrich was a nation and what sense it was more 
or other and what it sought to effect, the world, — apparently 
then could have been saved much bloodshed and brutaliza- 
tion. But of course, this ‘combining against,^ like all com- 
bining against brought on the war which in that case, lasted 
thirty years: and then though outward hostilities were abated, 
the struggle was carried on in nations, towns and provinces 
over what was supposed to be ‘ two opposed principles ^ ; — which 
were fought for, by distinctive agencies under the leaderships 
of Guelph and Ghibelline. ‘Guelph’ being an italianized form 
(I believe) of the German word ‘ Welf ’ or wolf.” 

“Oh! Then I was right in thinking, those German were- 
wolf stories were identified with things related to your task 
of becoming a Louveteau (as the French have it) or young 
wolf?” 

“Why not?” he answered, with a quick look at her: then 
added: “And perhaps horrible as they were, they were 
not exaggerations of the struggle it is to get (if one lapses 
into beast-manners) back again to that beatific-manhood 
toward which, God-empowered, I tell you, Geraldine, my face 
is set!” 


214 


Who Builds? 


Dynamically-expelled it had come as he had met the strange, 
dark-splendors in her eyes. For while looking at him she 
saw not him, but The Just Man! — Him, the adumbrations 
of whose fate had made her His warrior. And the adoring 
devotion in her gaze had staggered Frantze: whose impulsive 
output of words, hand and look then but met an amaze, 
which, extinguishing those lights and splendors, gave him 
to know, it was not for him they had flamed. 

And assured of it he was by the memory of a moment as 
exalting, which had arrived to him in a garden above Lake 
Michigan. And turning to Lamed there followed that ex- 
change of comprehending Intelligence; which, if the world- 
ful of Mothers had more of it, their daughters^ marriages 
would oftener result in bringing to earth, miracles instead of 
monstrosities. Encouraged to proceed with his narrative, 
he did so saying hushedly, 

“ — and now, as of old, things are so tangled-up again, 
that many of the ‘wolves' are acting more like devouring 
animals than like trained-Masters of the Royal-secret: just 
as they think those in the other party would act, if they had 
a chance." 

“I told the audience, that, at root, this world-wide fight 
into which we have been plunged is ‘between two-principles' 
as Browning says in ‘Sordello': and that now as of old, the 
Guelph-side (including Victoria Guelph) is hot and hearty 
for Monarchical-supremacy: while the Ghibelline (or Roman- 
Catholic-church party) holds rigid for Hierarchical-Supremacy. 

“I thought I could make all swiftly and simply interesting 
by telling them, something about the ancient-civilization 
which permeated Druidical and Celtic-lands in Ancient Albion 
and elsewhere. Which civilizations were built up on (as I 
believe) an Intellectualizing-form of sociology: inflbred by 
the lofty principles of s6Z/-conquest : (the achievement of which 
gives one quite enough of battling) a health-filled civilization 
which fetched its adherents a prosperity that attracted plun- 
derers to the land, — (a la Brutus:) whose manners and methods 
were in line with the killing of ‘the bird' which laid the golden 

Egg- 

“I frankly touched up the matter of the Universal Monarchy 
(or Imperialism) which the adherents of the Brutus-like 


Who Builds? 


215 


style of management, may wish to set up here, if Americans 
can be brought to believe a Democracy (or government of 
people by and for people) is become impossible now that 
our country is so tremendously inundated with so-called 
illiterate foreigners. Many of whom (when we come to sift 
it down) know, as well as we do, the rights and wrongs of things 
at stake. 

^ reminded them that they well knew, that this Nation 
was horn for the purpose of establishing, (not a Universal- 
Monarchy, backed by a hierarchic-dominance but) ^a govern- 
ment of people: by and for people^: in which each individual 
woman and man was to be upheld in allegiance to his and her 
ideal of-and utilization of, the creative-principle: which, 
rightly understood, is Bishop of souls. 

^‘And there I got in too deep: fetching out from one quarter, 
a roar against Bishops and against all religious-meddling 
with American politics. Nor did they catch on to my pet 
idea (which I thought would charm them) namely; my idea 
that there is an aristocracy made up of those who best serve 
the greatest-number, and who ask least for self-in return. 
I explained that such an Aristocracized-Republic could not 
exist except as its citizens were educated in the knowledge 
that the only way to be virtuous is by the hourly-practice of 
the fine old pagan-virtues which practice renders the prac- 
tiser and possessor invincible. 

^^And one man, then several, shouted out, ^Oh! What are 
you giving us?' etc." laughed Frantze. 

‘^Then a bright minister took it up, on another plane: try- 
ing to show that something more and better than compulsory- 
Religion was needed: — referring to the fact that in 1734, 
Bishop Warburton had said, ‘while the rule of right might 
direct a philosopher, and a point of honor might keep up a 
thing called “manners" among Gentlemen, nothing but religion 
would fix the standard among common people.' And that. 
Bishop Butler (the author of ‘Analogy between Nature and 
Revealed Religion') had said concerning that epoch, that 
‘universities were then on the side of irreligion. For pro- 
fessorships (as well as pulpits) were given to men, not for 
their absolute worth but for possessing qualities then in vogue 
with those in power'! (much as now.) ‘And that England 


216 


Who Builds ? 


had then reached a culmination of debauchery and irre- 
ligion: not in one class alone but in air and Hhat the firm 
establishment of the Episcopacy did nothing to lessen the 
moral-gloom’: and that ‘religion had lost all real hold on the 
people.’ The minister added that he spoke of this to show 
that wherever Religion becomes a compulsory affair, such 
conditions always ensue! Because an ‘act to be moral or 
religious, must be the outcome of the inmost soul of the actor.’ 
And that the founders of this Republic understood it to be so, 
when, in the Constitution they provided for the right of every 
one to worship God according to the dictates of his and her 
own conscience.” 

Halting, Frantze, wondered that what had sounded so good 
and was so well received by the audience, now sounded like 
such an ordinary old-story, when thus repeated at home. 

In fact, he had rather the air of having run home as fast 
as he ever could, to tell the big things that had occurred: 
and of finding he had not so much to tell in the way of troubles 
or successes as he had supposed. For that the most he had 
to be congratulated upon, was that he was safe home and no 
harm done. He said as much, climaxing it with: — 

“The fact was, Konnyngscrown had gotten tired of seeing 
me so ‘flat, dull and unprofitable’: and so had given me a check 
book and told me to run over the country and see what people 
were about and what they needed: and what I might do, 
to right up the world-wide tangles. But I learned nothing 
new in particular. We had all studied up the intricate or 
simple problem while I staid at home. With things tied up 
as they now are, there seems nothing feasible except — Indi~ 
vidual-Rectitude ! Though when I am here at home it seems 
as if everything else fine were possible also: — yes: necessary 
to be done for others: and that, at once. 

“What in the name of the Lord who made us, is the matter 
with this horror-stricken-Epoch? Is it upside down? Or 
rotting at the core?” 

“ — at the core,” said Lamed. 

“Yes” said Geraldine “that’s the reason we here, began at 
the spot we stood on: and went to cleaning up the house we 
live in; if we were not to be allowed to clean the social-muss 
we have to breathe in.” 


Who Builds ? 


217 


Then she said, “I am glad you are to be in Washington this 
season/^ 

am glad too” said Frantze. Then as if making a venture 
he said, ^^Aunt Lamed had you ever much met Konnyngs- 
crown before he came here?” 

^^Does he speak of ever having met me?” 

“That he does not talk about,” said Frantze: understand- 
ing that when persons start out on the truthful James ^ road, 
they sometimes meet with set-backs and sometimeSy expedite 
benefits to all concerned. And Geraldine with her tendency 
to rush to Lamed's rescue, said, 

“Oh! By the way, which are you, Guelph or Ghibelline? 
Or are you both? Why don^t you run over to England and 
hunt up your affairs, and not be waiting on Konnyngscrown^s 
motions any longer? By March I will have as much as six 
hundred dollars which I will think it a favor if you will use, 
towards hunting up your affairs and finding out all facts con- 
cerning my Father^s relation to the old Guelph and Ghibelline 
matters. Then we shall all act more intelligently relative to 
the old fight now on in the world again.” 

Then looking at Frantze as if from a great distance she said: 
“I should think you would have some curiosity as to what 
is your name?” 

“Do you doubt my name?” said Frantze with a keen look 
at her. 

“I certainly do not know it. One man of whom we know 
only what he tells us of himself, calls you Aneuland, another 
called you Van Neulandt. It may be both, either or neither.” 

“Geraldine in her season of retreat” interposed Mrs. Land- 
seer, “so far tested her ability to ward off poverty, as to strike 
off some marketable pieces of writing. She has hold on the 
verities of Life: and knows as well as I do, that the Guelph 
and Ghibelline-matters simply include questions for philosophi- 
cal and scientific settlement.” 

“Ishtar has made me see it so,” said Frantze. 

“However” said Geraldine, holding to her topic “I would 
live on bread and water to know your history and mine.” 

“And suppose you did so in order to supply me with money 
to find out what you want to know, and suppose it transpired, 
I had no Family (as the term goes) and had but my make-up as 


218 


Who Builds ? 


a young- Wolf and as a ward of Adonai: Prince Adept of the 
Royal Secret: would you (I ask again) will you, accept me as 
your husband, leal and true?^^ 

The color had gone out of his face. The words came with 
sharp awkwardness. He was still, as the brave are still when, 
the honorable act performed, the actor awaits consequences. 

Geraldine gave him her hand, saying, ‘^Frantze, I love you 
well, and am done harassing you. Yours is but a proffer of 
co-operative-friendship; such as I offered to Konnyngscrown 
when I wanted all duplicity stripped off of life.’^ 

‘‘Geraldine: do you realize what you are saying?” im- 
pressively queried Mrs. Landseer. And Geraldine, with elbows 
on chairarms, hushed and poised, judicially replied, 

“Lamed; if we agree to go into retrospection, it will be for 
the purpose of getting at (not simply what I need nor this 
family nor this C^risis needs but) what ‘the whole family, in 
Heaven and Earth ^ needs to have general-intelligence know^ in 
order to welcome the possibilities of this great, sixth-round- 
epoch! 

“In view of those possibilities I say I am not a marrying 
woman. Whether, or not you were, is not the point to consider 
now: so much as is the fact, that your marriage brought on 
a set of circumstances which, though not easy for you, must 
be managed by us (now that we are born) for the good of all 
concerned ! 

“I confess I often wonder who would be who, if the very 
she did not marry the he who together finally give parentage 
to. Who comes.” Then, as with the wide benevolence of a 
soul who gathers to itself, one who has suffered in her stead, 
Geraldine added, 

“Great One, you have done marvellously well. But I never 
will risk marriage. I will still live with eyes raised to her 
who has but lived for the purpose of securing her household, 
Landseer included, in the right to be the best possible self, 
each being judge for self. Lamed, I am thrice your sister; 
and only once your child, if — if I am your child?” 

The judicial, critical quietude with which she spoke these 
incisive words, was beautified by the unusual tone of melo- 
dious tenderness as of a heart newly swept of misjudgment 
by some recent sight. 


Who Builds? 


219 


The change was evident but not named by either spectator 
of it as ^softening of heart neither was it. It was rather 
a clarifying of judgment that had come from a cleansing 
away of bitter unfaith in the justice of anything or any thought 
of any being on earth or in the heavens above the earth; a 
cleansing and clarifying which had been brought her with 
the sight of the Just Man: and of what He got for being Just. 
It was the reflex of His quality which intuned her voice. 

Out of the silent analysis of the presence of that quality 
(not yet defined by those who felt it) Lamed said, ^^I am glad 
you both know that you do not care for one another in that 
indescribable-way, which (other things being equal) furnishes 
the true basis for marriage. Otherwise you might have sac- 
rificed each other and have done duty ever afterward: but — 
'^Well — I think it more than mere romance which suggests, 
that the other element, — intangible and — 

— unknown to you? would you say?^^ assistingly said 
Geraldine in that same hushed tone (which now disrobing of 
rudeness her crisp outputs) brought from Lamed the self- 
scrutinizing answer, 

“Yes: I suppose it is unknown to me. And probably the 
brain-dazing, conscience-bewildering, emotional-subjection of 
one soul to another (over which romance raves) is a pitiful 
embarrassment-of-riches to any man or woman hampered by 
it!” She curiously colored and halted before their intense 
awaitment of Truth: adding, “Yes: I must say it. Because 
it is time women realized that the average man, above all 
needs the benefit of woman^s clear sight from the cradle to the 
grave: and on woman^s power to do duty manfully by him, 
(and not on her clinging, emotional love for him) the die is 
cast in the game of life. 

“In marrying, a woman does well to promise herself, she 
will do her husband good, and not evil, all the days of his 
life. Then, with her mind off of the question of her own hap- 
piness, she can take her stand at her post of duty, and holding 
to her best sight of truth, stick to her business of bettering 
him and her family.” 

To Frantze^s ear there was a desolating sound in this readi- 
ness to do and bear, what (he felt) should not be a possibility 
in Marriage. 


220 


Who Builds ? 


He did not like this cast-iron quality of philosophizing 
over woman^s ability to bear things, which ought to have been 
(before this) cleared out of the category of (at least), chris- 
tianized-existence. And he said so, most emphatically: 
stating that it was time, that somewhere, somehow, there 
should be gotten up a solid differentiation between the raven- 
ings of beasts and, the union-of spiritized-personalities ; add- 
ing however ^‘But the article, called ^society,’ averages in 
its secret history, to show as little of that last named ‘union 
of spiritized-personalities,^ as do the so called lowest-classes. 
What's the matter?" 

“I say," replied Geraldine, judicially, “Man has no capacity 
for friendship with woman. Look at Konnyngscrown for 
instance: always ready to demolish, instead of attend to a 
case; as presented by woman. He lacks capacity for friend- 
ship with woman." 

“That is where you are mistaken," said Lamed abruptly. 
Then, “I am taking the time to tell you," she said with 
great deliberation, as the other two pairs of eyes met, sought 
hers, and fell away listeningly, “that, hitherto, men have not 
been trained in sustaining friendship with womanhood: any 
more than women (so called) have been trained in trusting 
to men's friendship : for reasons sufficient. " 

And adroitly, Geraldine asked, like a little child, “Why do 
you say ‘women so called'? Tama says so too, but she never 
tells me why?" evidently enjoying herself, quite beyond the 
ordinary. 

“One subject at a time," said Lamed. “I am telling you 
that friendship exists only between acknowledged equals. 
And that there are men who are incapacitated for reigning 
with Woman on Plato's (much less on Christ's) fair Plane. 
I am not sure, Jerome Konnyngscrown is incapacitated! His 
trouble is — rather that he does not know that it is awaiting 
Man as a plane on which to reign! 

“I am suggesting, it is time Men were better informed as 
to the Realm that awaits their occupancy." 

“But why" said Geraldine, “why should women forever 
be drudging over (so called) Man's wants and woes?" 

“For the same reason that they drudge over ours. We 
are all tied up in one bundle of Life!" said Lamed. 


Wh(y Builds ? 


221 


^‘But Men (so called) ought to grow up!^^ said Geraldine. 

^^You will never hear anything else from Geraldine, but 
that ^ so-called’’^ said Frantze. 

Besides’^ said she, ‘^Men spoil all pleasantness by Mailing 
in love’ just as you begin to feel a little friendly toward them. 
It may be all right for those who care for it: but the very 
term ‘falling in love’ sounds discouraging. I hate it.” 

“That’s a bad case too,” said Frantze, “though, if woman 
took to hating Move’ would it (do you think aunt Lamed) 
furnish a good antidote for men’s conscious possession of a 
super-abundant liking for it?” 

“Frantze? Geraldine?” said Lamed, calling them each 
by name, with a pause-filled gravity. “If by ‘antidote,’ you 
mean an ‘opposite’ as a Mason you Frantze ought to know 
that what Geraldine says is much nearer a right philosophy 
of true living than is the popular teaching that woman (so- 
called) is the symbol and exponent of love. Even Sweden- 
borg, (I believe it is), teaches the reverse in the remarkable 
words, — ‘the supreme crown (which is the ancient Most- 
Holy: the hidden of the hidden,) is fashioned within the occult 
wisdom of both sexes — male and female. In which the father 
denotes most perfect love, and the mother most perfect rigor, 
and in which she averts the face.’ The point is, Geraldine’s 
intuitive tendency toward the rigor that averts the face, 
is so far correct that if all women were left to that tendency, 
then man, instead of being infiuenced to dissoluteness, would 
comprehend that what he loves is the ‘absolute feminine’ 
(cabalistically called He, Ha or Hua) which is hidden on every 
side: and which is part of that unutterable name Yoci-He-Vah; 
in which Yod is male, and He or Hua is female, ^hoth qI which 
are fashioned within the most occult wisdom of both sexes,’ 
as say the wise. 

“And what I am saying now” continued Lamed, “is that 
the feminine should follow its own highest nature. For then, 
naturally it would assist the brother to an equilibrium: im- 
pelling him to seek that totality of the Hu, Ha or Hua life 
which is within: and which, when evolved, becomes a per- 
fected man-builder, as well as ‘the perfected man’! 

“This evolutionary work, all scientific religions set forth, 
as humanity’s great concern. 


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Who Builds ? 


“So, Frantze, if now, at this great epoch an exemplifying 
utterance can be given to what has been supposed to be unut- 
terable: (for instance the cabalistic name of Yod-Hevah) 
then the intelligent world will be able to practically face the 
fact that Hhe supreme crown ^ is latent within the wisdom- 
wielding-power of both the younger and the elder brother; 
though more alert and ready for service in the Elders. And 
the Intelligent would realize that if self-mastered persons 
chose to contract marriage at such a level, such a marriage 
union would be like that, set forth by the Austrian standard 
of the double-headed eagle; not unknown to your fraternity 



Who Builds ? 


223 


Frantze: with one body, one pair of wings, but two heads; 
each of which averts itself with the rigor, which we of this 
home, have attempted to practice; as each has done his own 
thinking in a more or less courteous (though incisive manner) 
each trying to keep so self-poised as to not rend the interior 
self-harmony on which depends the perfection of the ^form 
of spirit/ 


^ A form of Spirit ^ (she repeated directing attention to the 
wall opposite where hung photographs of some of the world- 
wide standards which were among the ' family values^. 
form of Spirit ’ which is pictured at this double-headed-Aus- 
trian Eaglets Whole-Heart. For at the right-ventricle dances 
the Judean-Lion upholding in his grip a crown: while at the 
left, three white Eagles flutter the vibratory pulsations of their 
triuning-Intelligence throughout the National Body!'’ 

Said Frantze: — 

‘^The double-headed eagle has lately been reported as 
significant — not only of personal aspirations and struggles, 
but of so much related to the aggregations of provincial and 
governmental power that it makes one dizzy to think of it 
all. But the emphasis which you put on the individual's 
necessity for self-harmonization (whether he remains celi- 
bate or enters the marriage state with a co-partner at that 
higher-life level) is very satisfactory to me." 

‘Ht is a very necessary emphasis": said Lamed. ^^For 
the averted face signifies to me, the duty of taking even the 
compelling or beseeching eye off from the younger brother; 
except when it is used to repel intrusion — while leaving him 
to find his own way, free from that overwhelming emotional 
influence which so cruelly and insidiously enmeshes the 
footsteps of man." 

^^What is the matter with the footsteps of men?" said 
Geraldine. ^^Why can't they step square and pick out clean 
places just as well as the rest of us." 

'‘They can" said Frantze, know they can." 

"There Lamed, / knew they could," said Geraldine. 

"Yes, they can if they choose," said Mrs. Landseer. "You 
are quite right. Never doubt it either of you. At this stage 


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Who Builds f 


in race development they can step square and pick out clean 
places. But there was a time in rigorous climates and when 
all things all round were in a rugged state of development, 
when the struggle for bread, clothes and roof — added to the 
fight against wild animals — kept men and their wives on a 
crisp working-basis of mutual helpfulness in which their 
distinctive roles as males and females tended to make each 
seem to be but a ^ fragment ^ of the whole : as each took up his 
or her fragment of existence; with the result that each de- 
pended on the other, like two halves of — 

^^Of what,^' said Geraldine impatiently, not liking that idea. 
— of the man-that-is-to-be?^^ said Frantze, with an apol- 
ogetic interrogatory glance at Lamed. 

— just that,’ said she, very well pleased that this patch- 
work style of conversation, or turning round of ideas was 
feasible between her and the children who from childhood, 
with her, had conspired to live up to Marcus Aurelius’ motto; 
‘^If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.” 

Geraldine, repeating Frantze’s explanation, said, ^^The 
man-that-is-to-be ? When, Oh, when is he coming; and 
what occasioned the hiatus between the old-fashioned ^frag- 
ment’ of which you speak Lamed; and the building of the 
man-that-is-to-be? And besides, do you suppose the man- 
that-is-to-be, ever was? If so, what made him fall away 
from being the best-he-ever-had-been?” 

^^You know the story of Adam and Eve?” said Frantze 
mischievously. 

^^I don’t believe it.” 

^^I wouldn’t say that,” said Lamed. 

^‘Well, you may have no need to. I have said it” said 
Geraldine herself laughing at the crudeness of her pursuit of 
facts. 

“Perhaps Geraldine means,” said Frantze, “that that story, 
to her, is a deeper telling, of the ‘Fall of Jerusalem,’ or of 
‘Troy,’ and has to do with Tasso’s story of the recovery of 
Jerusalem, or Milton’s story of ‘Paradise Lost,’ and Dante’s 
ditto — ‘ regained.’ Or — ” 

“Please, Geraldine means,” said that would-be-well-self- 
understood young woman “that, as you have told how things 
went on when men and women were content to be fragments 


Who Builds ? 


225 


of some not-yet-visible whole man, I now want you to tell 
what they did, when each had time to give a little attention 
to the work of finishing ^self up?’’ 

She looked at Frantze with a nod as she used to do, when 
a little girl she used to say, — ^^Now you go on with the story 
from there”; — which he now did, first questioning: — 

‘^Do you mean, to ask what happened when, under easier 
circumstances, these fragments began to grow indolent? 

Perhaps!” said she. You’re telling this story now. 
Tell it as you like.” 

‘^Well, when easier circumstances arrived, indolence set 
in. Then indolence tended to mental-relaxation: and that 
tended to sensuality. Sensuality was the enemy of womanly- 
rigor! And that gone That self -whole-one, being thus bereft 
of its hold on self-sovereignty, becoming the slave of the 
male left him to become the slave-of-his-slave. Then set 
in the covert-mash-of malignancy, known since as the Fall-of 
Man.’ 

You have stated it well!” said Lamed, catching her breath 
under the fire of Frantze’s swift outpour. ^^But you have 
only shown us the mash and the Fall! Now Frantze, go on 
and do what Geraldine asked. Tell us, what they ought to have 
done when at last they had had time to give to the business of 
each finishing up self?” 

^^If you want an answer ‘on the square,’” said this learned 
free-mason, ‘Took at the Austrian eagle, and the eagle more 
simple of this country. I think, each, individually sought 
(and now like eagles should seek) his and her own eyrie-heights. 
For the rest,” — he halted, hating to say things that reflected 
too heavily on over-burdened women, many of whom, he 
believed had struggled as faithfully as had Lamed. Taking 
up the matter from another side he burst forth : — 

You tell me whence has come this sudden inflow^ of every- 
thing degrading from lands that America (now equally brutal) 
has gone to christianize with bullets and bibles. Whence 
this new fealty to the ‘social conscience’ which has left, licen- 
tiousness more fashionable than is the keeping of those ten 
commandments: which kept, on the body, soul and spirit- 
plane would have made a heaven on earth?” 

“Whence came it?” repeated Lamed. “The burden of 


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Who Builds ? 


proof is with you if it did not come from The Hand that leaves 
men in such freedom that, each, showing forth his inner-state, 
stands revealed as each is. Thus giving each one to see 
what is in self and in ^Man,’ generically considered. That 
thus all may be brought to despise injustice, and gratefully 
receive instead, the good-things that are laid-up in the ^Mind- 
that-is-in-Christ ^ : which good things woman inherently is 
ready to receive and utilize!’^ 

^^But why then, when women were called, nine or ten years 
ago, to 'consult over the portentous matter-at-stake,’ why — 
I say, — if they had such a tremendous hold on 'the hidden 
of the hidden,’ — did they lapse into silence and become 
duped into allegiance to the dicta of the so-called 'social 
conscience’? The outcome of which now looks to be, but 
a mash of malignant misery?” queried Frantze. 

With quiet retrospection she answered, "Ten years ago we 
(you included) were ten years younger than we are now: 
ten years more brain-bound! I, at least, could not then have 
said things so dispassionately as I now am saying them. Could 
you, Frantze? The women who went into that consultation 
over 'portentous matters,’ understood it as a solemn call 
to give their best selves — sacramentally for the saving of the 
world: and, relatively, for the solution of the sex-mystery! 
One invitation from the A. A. W. came to me, impressing me 
so, that, though I chiefly dwelt at home in those days, I ex- 
erted myself once to go out and consider the matter. With 
the result that, the few words I spoke, sounded like ominous 
outcries: and called so evident a halt to the morning’s busi- 
ness, that, after paying my contribution and next-year’s- 
subscription-fee, I took my leave: believing that my country 
was being turned into a cattle-yard, where boy babies were 
to be bred to and for butchery! 

"Perhaps five times in the last five years I have stepped 
out to note progress : always finding my few words to be aston- 
ishingly foreign to the fancies, precipitated on the audience in 
line with the general outlook at the celebrity to be gained, if 
but a psychical, political and national-military and sacerdotal- 
dominance could be attained! 

"Since then many men and women have died: other men 
and women have — well, not exactly died ! 


Who Builds f 


227 


^'For myself, I early decided to let outside matters drop 
out of my hand and heart both of which must hold to the 
home-making for the five or six who have lived here, dis- 
tinctively engaged in Character-building, each according to 
his and her selection of mental material treasured up from the 
past. 

^^Now, if I had wished and had tried to go forth speaking 
the high, plain truths amid crowds (most of whom wanted the 
platform, themselves) would my home-clientele have been as 
far up the well-defined ^ narrow way ’ as now they are ? 

^'Just now Geraldine and I (all so late) are engaged in clear- 
ing out the rubbish from the home as effectually as we have 
tried to do from the more interior-house not made with 
hands,’' said Lamed — adding, ^^Ten years ago, few women 
really knew what it was that had been turned over to them 
to do.” 

'‘That, practically, was what was said of 'Victoria Guelph’” 
exclaimed Frantze, — "when her majesty signed a bill rele- 
gating thousands of women to be worse than murdered wher- 
ever she sent her soldiers to be also worse than murdered, 
for the extension of the glory of her government over the 
reeking earth. No woman has a right to get off, on that ex- 
cuse! Woman’s business and prerogative to ^know.^ How 
can you doubt it, after all you have said of their interior 
powers of foresight and insight and 'Juris Prudentia’? I am 
furious at having any woman say, she don’t ' Know.’ I believe 
every woman will find, she does 'know’ if she goes within 
and looks herself up ? I believe Victoria Guelph did ' know ’ and 
does Know, now!” 

"Victoria Guelph” said Lamed, with a loving utterance 
of that name, "also is ten years older than she was ten years 
ago: and many, many years older than she was when the 
Oriental lines of warfare were begun, the methods of which, 
were so offensive to Gladstone. 

"For your other point, nine hundred and ninety-nine women 
out of a thousand are burdened (as was the Mother and Queen, 
Victoria) with immeasurable impedimenta: — which I will not 
discuss here: — so that — unless they somewhat float with the 
current they are generally mangled in the undertow! In 
other cases, their outlook at the splendor of things possible 


228 


Who Builds ? 


blinds them to the smudge of things probable! Leaving 
any man who claims (as you do that they should always be 
infallibly right) in a state of mingled amazement and dis- 
trust of them when he finds they have not known the in- 
tricacies of things which men elaborately have kept them from 
^presuming to have any business to know,^” 

In my chamber I keep a pathetic picture of young Vic- 
toria giving one of her then newly acquired black subjects, 
an English Bible. The black-man^s eyes, raised as he kneels, 
look puzzled but hopeful; and the admiring court (including 
her consort) look on as if there were little more that could 
be added to this beneficence. 

‘‘As I said Victoria Guelph is older now: and I hope she 
now is in Heaven^s Court where others than flatterers sur- 
round her. She now sees the mistake she made. And the 
sight of them comes to her (as it does to other Intelligences) 
beneficently, not burdeningly.’^ 

“Oh dear Auntie: — I did not fully know what I was talk- 
ing about. There is so much to everything! I now know 
why you held to the silence of secluded Home-making! But 
now — at least we can all assume Free Speech: restraining our- 
selves only up to the measure of that Juris Prudentia which 
having foreseeingly judged of oncoming events waits, to deal 
patiently with what foresight has failed to avert and what — 
more loosely compacted Beings — now waking up in alarm 
are unprepared to deal with. But, Madame: you ought now 
to announce yourself and your facts, publicly.^' 

“Oh! No! As it is too early, before people are ready 
to prevent, so it is too late when people are only able to 
uselessly repent! Nothing therefore is left, except, not to 
relent: but —to go on and fulfill the work to which one is 
sent!’’ said Lamed, in the slow, measured tones of the long- 
heavily laden Seer. For she had ceased to expect anything 
bright, except the mere chance to do the right, and take the 
blows that come in the thick of the fight. And she said so, 
casually. 

Frantze caught his breath: saying “The patience of the 
Saints, the self-whole, the foreseeing! My Mother had it too! 
A glimpse of it all, and of your hold on Juris Prudentia came 
to me on my twelfth birthday when I stood looking out on 


Who Builds f 


229 


my Earlier self and on the flotsam and jetsam — which last, is 
now being given up for use as the sea gives up its resuscitated 
Dead, who, reborn are to live again! But, how could you 
be so patient when every one disbelieved in you, and thought 
you — at least ‘very odd^?'^ 

“You have answered your own question as to the possi- 
bility of ‘Patience' — by your use of the term ‘the Patience 
of the Saints, or of the self-whole and self-harmonized. You 
were born self-whole. I knew it. So was Ishtar. So was — " 

“Don't say I was!" ejaculated Geraldine. “I know I 
have not yet assured myself of that! I don't intend to be 
patient! I won't be patient. I think it is wrong to be pa- 
tient! I think you. Lamed, did wrong, not to leave us two 
or three times every week, and go out and stand to your 
ideals, publicly saying what you thought about the fighting 
and the whist-parties and the gambling-games and the de- 
bauchery and the — " she stopped: and for the first time in 
her life burst forth into a convulsion of tears furious at 
Lamed's long long crucifixion. 

And Lamed steadily then said, 

“Our work is before us still." 

“Indeed yes," said Frantze, soft and low. “For as I ran 
over the country, I saw a tendency to increasingly take from 
women the means of self-support and heard smudgingly- 
smiling men say — ‘we have other business for them': 
which remark I relate to your long-ago recognition, that our 
country was and is being turned into a cattle-yard where b'hema- 
babes are bred for butchery. In '94 they talked more or less 
privately of having a thirty-years war for the glory of God and 
the Anglo-saxons who were to conquer the rest of the world." 

Geraldine with a sudden glimpse at the method in the mad- 
ness, pointing at an engraving of the pyramid at Ghizeh, 
said, 

“That has stood for thousands of years, held together by 
the force of gravitation and the annealing power of orderly 
construction. 

“It pictures, does it not, the divinely self-evolved, natural 
order of prehistoric-times ? But, by some artificially-contrived- 
manoeuvre, with us now the social-pyramid — which the other 
represents — has been turned apex downward into the accretion 


230 


Who Builds ? 


of falsities concerning woman’s ability to regulate the use of 
the World’s Realest Values! All this, Lamed told me years 
ago: but she did not go out, as I think she ought to have done, 
to tell mothers and the world about it. And we? We could 
not half understand. So ten years seem to me to have been 
not half used! For we did not half understand.” 

^^Dear Heart, you did understand as well, at least, as the 
outer world would have done. They would have called (and 
DID call it) Hoo high,’ and would have been bored and would 
have derided and then, have forgotten and then have mis- 
stated it. But my children and my home? They have treas- 
ured it up for future use. 

^^And now observe. The Apex of the pyramid has been 
removed. In it was (and is) treasured up, the type of 
Hhe hidden of the hidden.’ And not until there is . brought 
forth with rejoicing that topmost stone which the builders 
rejected, shall Hhe Light arise,’ which, shining from the 
Orient to the Occident, will right-up-conditions and put an 
end to — ” 

— the rot that is at the core!” said Frantze. ^'And 
unless these hideous days are shortened, the very elect will 
fail. The Time must be near!” 

^Ht has come” said Lamed. saw with comfort the 
report that an armed military force was kept about the Pyr- 
amid: significant (I thought) of a determination to keep 
Natives from carrying off the secret-Wisdom which, in that 
^miracle-in-Stone’ has been enshrined for the use of the dual- 
Spiritual-Energies which will be alert in the last Century of 
this Six-Thousand- Year-Epoch! After which, ‘gods will walk 
the earth’ like that Son-of-God, who walked through the midst 
of the Fire unhurt.” 

“Do you literally believe that, word for word?” said Frantze, 
turning to her. 

“I willingly wait to hear you state it as much better as you 
can,” said Mrs. Landseer. 

“O, if this is the business in hand, it will make our invasion 
of these countries fit to be looked on with some degree of 
allowance. For these repositories of Egyptian Wisdom, 
do, I know, enshrine instruction concerning the steps taken 
in the evolution of a six-thousand-years-ago -godlike-race; 


Who Builds ? 


231 


which instruction is in part, but distortedly being imparted. 
When it is scientifically comprehended then women who have 
‘endured the cross despising the shame’ for the sake of passing 
on the ‘Crown’ which they were born wearing, will accept 
the ‘totality of things’ and be willing to do awkwardly what 
they were not allowed to do in America’s ideal-way at that 
time when, as a consequence of man’s war-manceuvres, every- 
one became half crazed at the sinking of the Maine,” said 
Frantze. 

“A deep insight into the constitution of the ‘totality of 
things’ is an absolute necessity in the work of universal happi- 
ness making,” said Lamed. “But I have recently concluded 
that even in 1897, the country (individually considered) had 
so little knowledge of this totality (whether as enshrined in the 
Constitution of Man or in the constitution of the American 
Goddess of Liberty) that but a handful could then have been 
found capable of working together in that exalted-neighborly- 
fashion which Archibald and myself had thought to be fra- 
ternally-possible, when, early in the eighties, we undertook the 
task of so doing. 

“And even in ’97, or at the Jubilation over the opening of 
the Twentieth Century, such statements as you last made 
(and to which I am replying) would have been Greek even to 
Scholars who have, of late, been more interested in absorb- 
ing other Nations into our coffers than they have in winning 
them to absorb into themselves the divine Ideal that was back 
of our Constitutionalized Liberty. Scholars, many of wLom 
were more interested in giving woman the privilege (?) of 
participating unrebuked, in man-made-license than they were 
in placing her where she belonged as a helpful citizen of our 
Idealized Republican Liberty.” 

Tama stood at the door, her attitude announcing that lunch 
was ready for them if they were ready for it. Then, as they 
rose to make themselves so, Geraldine said: 

“My Lamed, at the crisis of the sinking of the Maine, Wis- 
dom to have dealt instructively (not diplomatically) with the 
matter, was in ‘the totality of Things.’ Were then the pos- 
sessors of this ‘totality’ dumb?” 

“Not dumb but dazed by complications which had in- 
creasingly ‘hidden the hidden’ facts of the case. With the 


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result that men^s unbelief in the possessors of this totality' 
had deluged women in unbelief in themselves as its possessors. 
I, myself was so deluged. How was it with you, Geraldine 
A vivid memory of her dazed and quarrelsome state over- 
whelmed Geraldine: and with parted lips, big-eyed she 
moved away. 


Who Builds f 


233 


CHAPTER XIV. 

'^Now is the winter of our discontent overpast.” 

A S they were about to be seated at table, Mrs. Land- 
seer tarried a moment before a picture on the wall, pur- 
porting to be ^The Key to the great Arcana^: saying, 
^‘Geraldine suggested that at that crisis there were women 
in this land who held (or were) the ^open sesame’ to the ‘total- 
ity of things,’ and asked if they were dumb.” Then she 
waited for who cared to do so to take up the matter. 

“Would you intimate” said Frantze, “that men learn all 
from women?” 

“It might better be stated that from the spiritized-afflatus 
of woman’s rightly-related Spiritually-'yoZa^i'Ze nature men 
might learn immeasurable Wisdom.” Frantze caught the 
word and comprehended it. Lamed continued, — 

“But if men, by false logic concerning the ‘way of Life’ 
animalize woman’s spiritual-nature then, like the blunderers 
of whom you spoke, they kill the bird which lays the golden 
egg: which means, they cut off the power which electrically 
evolves the golden age.” 

As never before, Frantze saw the meaning of the Arcanum 
a picture of which hung on the wall before his eyes. In it he 
previously had but seen Cosmic man, self-crucified, fixed at 
the double-center of the whirling wheel of Ixion, seemingly at 
the mercy of the spiritual powers of the North and the South 
and the animal forces of the East and the West as they sped 
forward on their appointed tasks, never, any of them being 
able to exceed the measure of their duty: that is, what was 
due from them at the time. 

For the bull, with neck yoked to the wheel, follows hard after 
the Angel of the Annunciation: whose steadfast hands hold 
the rod that carries the wheel from the south to the east, 


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where the winged lioness, with relentless grip of teeth, rushes 
toward that Solstice at which, the Eagle with powerful claws 
and mightier wing, strains skyward, bearing onward that 
revolving ‘wheel of Time which brings the appointed day/, 
Neither one of these influences (not even that of the liberty- 
loving bird) being able to break away from their due relation 
to that ‘double center’; of which Ishtar had spoken to him, 
when she had quoted to him the stanza, 

‘‘ O rest my long divided heart, 

Fixed on this double-center rest; 

And never from Life’s Lord depart, 

With Him of every good possest.” 

He now saw that the bull, Angel, winged-lioness and eagle, 
all working together, combined their on-rushing forces for the 
flnal development of even Adamic-man’s ultimate dualized- 
divinity, which is absolute-Unity. 

And he understood more fully the look in Ishtar’s eyes when, 
as if agonizing to be delivered of the ‘ultimate’ she had said, 
‘I wonder if I can myself, test my theories.’ 

And with a spring of soul toward the future he said, 

“ ‘If, if man’s laws and false logic kills the bird’? 
Have false logic and false laws ever tended to do anything 
else? Spirit cannot he killed, therefore they did it not. But 
else — ! ” 

“What has been done” said Lamed, “the God who permitted 
it will now help us to utilize; as we must utilize the results of 
all the blunders that male-factors have thrust on each other 
in their flghtings for dominion over and possession of, that, 
which, (desiring and slaying) they yet unjustly have called 
‘the maker of the mischief between them.’” 

Geraldine’s color heightened and her eyes beamed with that 
gladness that betides us all, when we And some one else under- 
stands that, which has haunted us as ‘truth,’ and yet which 
we have but received ‘short shrift’ for having (as was sup- 
posed) uncanonically believed : and she asked, 

“ Ought not men now squarely state, that women are not sin- 
ners, but are saviors? and that they interiorly so hate the mirage 
precipitated on them by unscientific falsities as to be more than 
ready to now back up the highest of Masonic-or Hierarchic- 


Who Builds ? 


235 


spiritually-scientific teachings? We (Ishtar and I) know that 
these two seemingly opposed Institutions, have both always 
(in a way) been trying to bring about the evolution of man’s 
highest faculties and functions. Now Frantze, in your opinion 
which is nearest right: and in what is one (or both of them) 
so far wrong as to have let the man-that-is-to-be still remain 
buried in oblivion?” 

^‘That is a comprehensive question. But are you quite sure 
he is still buried in oblivion?” he said, laughing. can 
answer in brief, I think they both teach that a universal friend- 
ship is obtainable among those who are self centered on con- 
scious obedience to Indwelling Power. Thus developing what 
Aunt Lamed names Hhe wisdom to do wisely and well.’ That, 
practicalized by every woman and man would carry us all 
far and finely: they think?” 

A little fiavor of his necessitated reserve-before-the unin- 
itiated had come in there. Which Lamed answered with 
that indrawing of breath that accompanies discussion of a 
matter which one feels to be a foregone concluson. A weari- 
ness which inopportunely often debars older persons from 
serviceableness, as they unintentionally thus cool off the 
zeal which the now-weary-old-warrior, with much effort, had 
previously aroused in the precious young inquirer. An un- 
fortunate state to be in, as Lamed well knew. Yet with 
a long look at Frantze she answered, dully, Think you, 
would the searchers after the latent power of the electric current 
have been successful in utilizing it, if they had failed to con- 
sult it?” 

‘^What a question?” said he, rasped as Landseer had often 
been rasped at her undiplomatic-manner of giving no quarter 
to pretense by effacing her knowledge of facts. A manner 
which had made Archibald once say to her ^I should think 
you thought women, were God-almighty.’ And now in the 
halt that followed Frantze’s nettled question, she faced the 
fact that she was a disagreeable woman: that is a woman 
quite able to disagree with anything or anybody not repre- 
senting the Truth as she understood it. She was disagree able : 
Oh! very able! She was somewhat sorry for it: and some- 
what glad: because her fortitude in allowing herself to be 
serviceably repellent, had made her also repellently-service- 


236 


Who Builds ? 


able, as few women care to risk making themselves to be, 
on any account. 

But now this was an improved Era: in which the 'general 
free-fight now on,’ she, feeling rather released from much further 
exertion in that line: found it fitting that she should not 
now inopportunely spoil her past good-work by the expres- 
sion of that 'boredom over foregone conclusions’ which tends 
to overtake persons, later in life. She knew Frantze was as 
loyal a young fellow as she ever had chanced to see: and 
with a heart full of thankfulness that he was so nice, she 
gazed at him, realizing it as quite a new fact. He arose and 
coming round the table to her, lifting her fingers to his lips 
he said, "Of course. Dear Madame, if you mean men should 
have dealt as guardedly with woman’s powers as they have 
with the life-and death-dealing-electric current which they 
wished to utilize for themselves and the race, to that I agree : 
and with the reminder, that I do not stand with men who 
talk of what we should do and expect of our women. For 
I know womanhood is such a mysterious-entity that I (like 
many another) stand back wishing that they understood 
themselves fully enough to tell us, what they want us to do, 
at this mighty crisis in New Things.” 

"Thank you, courtly Knight” said Lamed, joined by Ger- 
aldine, who felt filled with a spirit like that which descended 
when disciples 'broke bread in gladness of heart: discern- 
ing The Lord.’ 

And Frantze with that warmth of the intellectualized-will 
which, in these days, sends persons on their way rejoicing, re- 
marked, "Auntie, you know the trouble is, when men try to 
comprehend women’s inmost thoughts and purposes they get 
into deep water: and don’t know, one minute from another, 
'where they are at.’ Then follows irritation: which irritation 
combined with excited curiosity, tends to make them at once, 
woman’s slave and resentful master. I do not think this diffi- 
culty comes from deceitfulness on the part of woman: nor from 
any planned unwillingness on her part to reveal what she is, or 
is really thinking or wanting. But that it is because, they have 
been taught to distrust, repress and efface themselves and their 
inherent-perceptions of facts. And this, has prevented their 
' composure to that self-unity’ which ' composure’ quiets turmoil 


Who Builds ? 


237 


and commands the ready attention which men really would 
(only too thankfully) give to what such women have to offer. 
Meanwhile, I am not unconscious, dear Madame, that some 
women who have the ^crown-manner,’ are not possessed of 
the crowning Grace of Womanhood! While others, whose 
manner at times (yes, usually) is strained and strenuous to 
a degree that repels men who would be as grateful for their 
courteous-treatment as they would be glad to lift the over- 
burdens which such women are carrying) are, interiorly 
^Crowned’ indeed and in Truth. Now what I want to know 
Aunt Lamed, is, why any really great woman can carry in 
her manner something like artificial-frivolity: as who should 
say, ^We expect nothing of you foolish fellows: and so meet 
you at once with that understanding of your case.’ It is 
pitiful, to say the least.” 

“It is” said Lamed, understanding full well the regrettable- 
ness of it. “But it cannot yet be entirely removed. Because 
women, some women — yes, most of them — are not yet accus- 
tomed to being allowed to reveal or explain themselves to 
others. And as men cannot explain or reveal them (in pul- 
pits or elsewhere) to themselves or others, woman averages 
even to herself to remain ‘ the unknown quantity ’ in the prob- 
lem of Life.” 

“But why need those who, in an unperfunctory-way, have 
entered upon a knowledge of their own and man’s relative- 
states, be so unmanageably nervous, and unintelligibly ob- 
scure and contradictory?” 

The gentleness was gone out of his voice. Anger was 
there. 

Lamed, the seer of Hhe way’ overpast by her, held silence: 
looking at the great gulf fixed between the solution of this 
problem and what even this very good fellow knew of psychic- 
strain and the higher spiritizing-agonies. She was looking 
at him, and rebutting the vibrations of his anger (as prob- 
ably some other questioned-one had done) and exemplify- 
ing the dumbness’ of which he complained: while whiten- 
ing to the lips as she realized, that every male of them, on 
their unfolding-way, would yet have to endure what women 
(by the millions) have endured and still are enduring, at 
the hands of that class, who deal with womanhood up and 


238 


Who Builds? 


down the earth, as devils in hell will yet devise a way to deal 
with those males. And out of her silence all this had come 
to Frantze^s mind. He had caught it all. 

“Pardon!” he said. “You have answered. I see, op- 
streperous-man's treatment fills discerning souls with grief, 
smouldering-rage, and dumbness. This shuts the door to 
discussion: and leaves the world, ignorant as to whether 
duplicity, stupidity or absolute deadness-of-sympathy reigns 
in woman, concerning man^s higher-necessities! But when 
real hate sets in — what then?” 

“I can tell you about that,” said Geraldine, in an awe- 
filled tone that brought two pairs of eyes to hers. 

“It beclouds the soul with a rage to punish. And it rips 
woman^s soul from her body in its search to get at the whence, 
the why and the when of the matter! And if she is not let 
to find out in quiet the whence, the why and the when of 
the matter, like a whipped cur, dumb she becomes: shivering 
aside, bruised and sore. Till, pressed too faVj — I doubt not 
she becomes fit enough to help devils-in hell in their task of 
devising a way to deal avengingly with the malefic-creatures 
who have made her what, she then appears to be!” 

“ — Or” said Frantze when he caught his breath, “being 
left to herself, she finds The Self; than whom there is no other 
Self! Then she, from baptism in fire, comes forth, like gold, 
refined. So that when again the Prince of-the-power-of- 
' The-Lord-from-Everlasting-to-Ever lasting ^ shall come. He 
shall find nothing in her on which corrupting agencies can lay 
hold. Then in her solidified-integrity, removed from fear of the 
uselessness of trying to utter the unutterable, she will be but 
the more serviceable in her reserved ^ degree,^ And her ^ degree^ 
will then be the thirty-third reserved degree of Master Builders 
of the universal Lodge.” 

“Frantze! Where did you — I mean you sound like a 
man of wide experience.” 

“It is the honorable effort of my life to so listen to women 
that they will frankly talk with me,” he answered simply. 
“For I know, if woman tries for her children’s sake, to live 
at a level where she can accomplish most for them it often 
gives her to face conditions concerning which Tennyson says 
to such a wife, 


Who Builds ? 


239 


‘ It shall be that thou shalt lower to his level day by day. 

What’s fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with clay.’ 

Then, I realize, her sours-strife must hold her dumb: 
and her possession of a ^crowned-life^ (and her consciousness 
of his hatred of it) must ungrace her manner: leaving her 
less regal to look upon, than is the empty-hearted, self-pro- 
tected owner of ^Health and a Day.^ Yet I still come back 
to the conclusion that almost everything depends on woman’s 
ability to successfully deal with the ‘younger brother’ (for 
he is an ugly thing, when he thinks he is not well-dealt-with) 
while she lives up to the plane of an apotheosized-Mother- 
hood: if so she wills and wishes! But in trying to do this, 
I repeat, commonly there is brought on the ‘war of the sexes’ 
(hated term) in which war thousands of preachers and teachers 
are now armed with the determination to hold womanhood 
subjected to an order of life which some men find easiest 
for themselves: though they know, it is death and corruption 
to the millions of women who thereby are worse than 
slaughtered, continually. Such men wish to disbar women 
from making or administering law regarding property holding 
or the educational control of children: whom they (not men) 
have agonized to birth and for whom more sacrificial yet, 
they have laid aside that virginal-estate, compared with which 
earth has nothing more conducive to the coming of the 
Kingdom.” 

“Why Frantze, I have never heard you talk like this, be- 
fore,” said Geraldine. He moved his fingers across his mous- 
tache: thinking there had not been much to encourage full 
discussions between them; but said, 

“We had a long discussion on Calvinism: Ishtar and I: 
and her view of ‘conviction, conversion and sanctification,’ 
prepared me to come to this ‘supper’! Then since, I have 
had a heavenly visit with the Eloiheems: where their daugh- 
ter Ethel, released me from fear of — what do you suppose, 
Geraldine? Why: of woman! Baptizing me in the certainty 
that Life is good and only good continually! Though before, 
I had occasional fears of both you and of Ishtar: when she 
talked so vivify ingly of the wonder- working-God ! For she 
seemed summoning hosts of heaven to turn her chariot wheels: 
while she fetched promethean-fire for the betterment of Man.” 


240 


Who Builds ? 


‘‘You are Alice’s own — ” 

“What? Say it fully, Lamed” they exclaimed together. 

“Patience,” said she. “You are the child of a heaven- 
visioned-Mother. No. Wait a little longer. Respect Kon- 
nyngscrown’s wishes.” 

“And now, just let us listen while you say which Institu- 
tion the Masonic or the Hierarchic, you think will carry off 
the palm of Victory, as Man-Builder?” 

“The one which best comprehends and utilizes the Self-Whole 
‘Eternal Feminine/ which, crowned ‘ Sovereign-of-all-lower- 



Who Builds f 


241 


forms, surmounting the ' White Horse ’ (spoken of in the book 
of ^ Revelations ^ and chosen as the standard of the Saxons) 
tramples underfoot the swinish-delights of the ^were-wolf' 
whose ravenings but desecrate (not satisfy) human desires ! 

“The generous, large-visioned lovers of this Russian-stand- 
ard see all these aspirations enshrined at the heart of the Rus- 
sian double-headed Eagle. And it is because of this ideal, that 
its intelligent subjects say (as a little maid said not long ago 
to me) ^ We love Russia not for what she yet is; but for what 
she and Her Church aim to Be ! ll 


Lamed rising said responsive: “I only know that if ^Mys- 
tery which is the Mother of Harlotry,’ was replaced by Sci- 
ence the handmaid of the Lord, then the scientific discussion 
of the facts known to the Repositaries of The ^ gifts of the 
Queen of the Air’ — Athene — would result in building all 
marital-homes into Temples: for which now Masons and 
Sacerdotals search the earth in their mystery-making man- 
ner. Then, because of the attractive-power which these homes 
would have on spiritizing-beings, gods would descend again 
from upper realms for reincarnation.” 

“Oh! Lamed, many women in these days should thus be 
blessed for their work’s sake!” said Frantze precipitantly. 
“Why not make this a permanent Assistancy toward such 
an outcome of American Ideals, and towards a true Christ- 
like-marital Order of the New Age?” 

“ In a way it is and has been and shall yet more definedly be 
such!” said Lamed. fully believe Hhe Master has now 
come^ in Spirit and Power, and calls for builders: not 
necessarily, removing them from their Hierarchic or Masonic- 
Temple- work but leaving every one everywhere who feels 
a call to this plane of life, whether in cot or palace, to follow 
the call.” 

“But” said Geraldine drawing back, “I beg, have no 
Institutionalizing of Home? Besides if I am to be in it, leave 
men out of our plans! They make all the trouble there is in 
the world.” Then, after a pause that emphasized her con- 


242 


Who Builds ? 


viction, she added, — ‘‘Men hate us: and you know it, 
Lamed 

“I can^t honestly say I do. I confess I am conscious of 
occasional doubts on the subject,’^ said Lamed, amiably 
in answer to the pathetic appeal in the woeful gaze of those 
eyes, which, through childhood had been raised to the then 
unhappy Mrs. Landseer. 

“What? You can’t say that all men hate us? I beg, 
don’t begin to get mistaken about that kind of thing, or I 
shall not know where to turn!” said Geraldine, as if founda- 
tions for a well regulated warfare were failing her. But her 
words were drowned in Frantze’s mirth. 

“Oh! that’s all very fine,” she interposed. “Neverthe- 
less, I insist, if we are to do this, we women must do it alone; 
and in a penurious, draggle-gowned sort of a way, at that.” 

“Did you ever see any one in such a rage for rags?” said 
Frantze, sensing meanwhile that this pathetic girl’s fun was 
as much like soul-torture as her incomparable, intellectual- 
toil was like the entertainment of a merry-making. It was 
as if, forever, one had to deal with two Geraldines, each of 
whom was at swords-points with the other. 

“Oh! This is a matter I shall guard against” she con- 
tinued. “Else people will be round wanting to organize; 
and then we shall have some unutterables, here claiming 
official salaries; and we’ll be set to work to stand behind 
curtains, showing handsome feet to be ‘bid on’ (as the papers 
report, was done at a church fair) and to make tidies for fairs 
to pay salaries which, (like Tennyson’s brook) will ‘go on 
forever’: — while our real work will stand still as the unutter- 
ables teach us how not to do it. It is of no use Lamed; Church, 
State and Beelzebub himself (for I am quite orthodox in my 
faith in Beelzebub) all combine against woman. Woman 
has no helpers. She has got to do everything by herself, and 
then die, — kicked.” 

“Poor, poor child.” 

It was scarcely an audible whisper from Mrs. Landseer, but 
Frantze knew its pathos, and interposed skilfully, — 

“I will tell you a secret Geraldine. Many men think woman 
has been so long crucified by brutality, that it would be rather 
dangerous to let her forth on a guilty world in the heat of her 


Who Builds? 


243 


indignation at abuses. Especially if all women themselves 
knew who they are and what their power is.^^ 

do not wonder/^ said Geraldine. ‘‘But mark you, the 
Lord, my own Souks Lord (who was turned out of the syna- 
gogue by the Pharisees of that day when he lived in Asia) is the 
one who let me forth on the world, the day I took the trouble to 
be born. And I have come to stay and to teach (as soon as I 
get ready) what I know is truth: that the whole story of 
the visible Incarnation, Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection and 
Ascension (the five stages) is none too extended and graphic 
for the portrayal o what women (that are ‘ worthy to be 
women 0 have gone through. I know, that men who are 
worth calling ‘men’ know that is, the Real Meaning of the Story 
of the atoning Sacrifice. ‘The Vegetable Lamb,’ as some one, 
somewhere calls that non-seZ/-conscious womanhood, who but 
lives loving, longing and languishing instead of thinking. 
Trying and Transcending-the-limitations-so burdensomely set, 
for their corral-ground; within which, they are herded, like 
Sheep for the slaughter: opening not their mouth, before their 
shearers ! 

“I often feel as if I could hear men whispering in their secret 
societies, that women would pay them off, if they could get 
unleashed. But here is Lamed-Ariosto, and plenty of others 
in proof of the fact, that women will do (as they have done) 
their dreadful duties through the ages, not really for love 
OF MAN, (much as he flatters himself) but because of their 
inherent sub-consciousness that their duty must he done if the 
world is to hang Humanly together! A man need to be but- 
half-witted to see that the center of gravity is in The Divini- 
tized Eternal Womanly: as it is in ‘bright Arcturus’ round 
which, the sun and the solar system revolve. So if woman 
were free to be herself, (she being judge who and what she is) 
she would, (as an attractive and distributive agent) attend 
to her business in as effortless a way as the Universal law 
of centripetal and centrifugal force attends to that business! 

“But no man believes this! They make sure that in what- 
ever we differ from them — mentally, morally or spiritually 
we are, by just so much, degenerates and derelicts.” 

“Isn’t she relieving her mind on the subject though?” 
said Frantze. Then, said he, — “Now let’s go on and try it 


244 


Who Builds ? 


the other way round. Suppose we men all knew that what 
you say of woman is true; and suppose all bright women knew 
that we knew it, how would that knowledge affect you all, 
in your conduct and carriage toward us?’’ 

the dear lad!” said Geraldine with solemn fun looking 
out of her tortured soul. ^^How like he sounds to the be- 
nignant slave-owner, who faced his property in the market 
place, saying, ^if I freed you, would you be faithful’? Now 
hear my model answer, as I say in extenso, — ^Sir, — I will be 
faithful, whether you free me or not.’ But here goes for the 
prelude to the answer. You would feel sick, Frantze if you 
could begin to know the diabolism which such a question 
as you have just asked, stirs up in any live woman not 
yet fully canonized. However, seeing it is you, and see- 
ing you are a dear good fellow-man, I will tell you that if men 
had the wit to do this decent thing, I, (and I suppose all women) 
would stop privately jeering. For we should then have cause 
to feel a well grounded respect for their good common-sense; 
and we would be to them as wise, loving and angelic, as the 
ideal mother of the Christ was towards Joseph, John and the 
rest of them.” 

dear me! Never mention that as an argument with 
ordinary men,” said Mrs. Landseer coming to the rescue. 
^‘Precious few of them would ever thank you for any such 
goodness. Men are not much for saints, these days. Cheer- 
ful sinners please them better, far better.” 

^‘Now, now! I meekly held my peace while you both told 
what you know about woman,” said Frantze, — ‘^but I object 
to aunt Lamed’s statement that cheerful sinners please men 
better than equally cheerful natural saints — handsome and 
kindly — would do; but it is their business to be handsome, 
kindly and cheerful, as well as saintly. Among cheerful sin- 
ners I claim there is a furtive sort of artificiality. And I 
claim it is natural for women to be hsindsomely -clothed, 
mannered and minded. But I claim that all artificiality 
in homes, churches and society, would be done away, if women 
were encouraged to keep steady that ladder, which like Jacob’s, 
is set up, as those angels ascend and descend who come, with 
the coming of Parousia! For I claim, Parousia has now come: 
and having come — ‘prevails to open the last seal of the Book 


Who Builds ? 


245 


of Life^: and I claim Parousia is that Ecclesia — who is Hhe 
Mother of us all/' ^ 

A silence fell. 

Out of it presently, Lamed said — (as if indeed, it were time 
that the book of lives should all be opened) Geraldine: 
if I should tell you what happened at the birth of my third 
child, it would seem absolutely unbelievable. To tell it in 
any court, would mark me an insane woman. And the fact 
that I did tell it Geraldine, to Landseer, gave him a hold on 
me which, (with his then utter divorcement from the spiritual 
realm of life and its doings on earth) belittled nie in his eyes; 
and caused him to dare to practically put Tama, my slave 
half-sister, over me as a keeper, not harsh, but helpful, — yet 
a keeper, in that she, in a way held the reins of the house- 
hold matters and managed the money and such things rather 
than I. He purposely left me penniless and therefore a pris- 
oner. 

‘‘This left me to do what? Geraldine, — I will tell you. It 
left me to do exactly what you have done. Think and think, 
and think and think, till I thought myself into a vigorous 
harmony with that Universal law, a knowledge of which is 
competent to do for its votaries what it is doing for you, and 
what it will have done for us as a family, and for the-world- 
at-large, as a family, when this century shall be well estab- 
lished. And the thing which that law can do is, to make 
its votaries invincible, 

“Mystical years are before us. Years in which young 
men and maidens will see visions and dream dreams the 
most glorious of which will be dimmed by the shining forth 
of that Light, which ‘enlightens every man that comes into 
the world.' A Light which will fall on the path of those who 
already see and try to tell the way to practicalize what poets 
and prophets have sung and foretold. 

“Geraldine, I do not know whether you are my child, or 
who you are. Konnyngscrown does not know why I will not 
tell him what I can, and solve his terror-filled doubts. Neither 
would he really believe me, if I told him, I did not know. 
He would think of me what the unjust Landseer thought: — 
that is (remember it) — he thought / was not speaking 
Truth! He had not learned that Truth is an elaborate im- 


246 


Who Builds ? 


mensity, as seen by woman’s three-fold- vision I Now, he 
knows something of that fact. For now he (thanks to the ed- 
ucation which we — Tama, Frantze and the rest of the Masters 
and princes of these royal secrets — have given him) does know 
that I was not brain-bewildered, but that he, was brain-be- 
fogged. For some eyes are ^holden’ and they cannot and will 
not believe that others can see Hhe invisible things of God, 
which are clearly seen being understood by things that are 
made in the ^eternal Heavens.^ 

Geraldine and Frantze listened to this voice, which of late 
so freely spoke forth from a silence which for years before 
had been almost unbroken. Geraldine, struck by the porten- 
tous effect on herself of Lamed’s confession, with a dead- 
ening of heart-beats said, — ^^Then I, I am not your child? 
You do not know who — ?” 

^^Now listen to that. Listen to that Frantze,” said Lamed- 
Ariosto sharply. Geraldine, don’t you see that your own 
way of taking up this matter, shows that I cannot tell you 
any more about it? — and have done well not to tell any body 
else about it? — For even this little that I have said, is caught up 
in this hasty alarmed way by even you — who ought to know 
better.” 

‘^You are right,” said Geraldine in an almost inaudible, 
but firm tone, white to the lips. 

^^You are right too, dear Geraldine,” said Frantze in a tone 
as low and firm. Gerry, Lamed- Ariosto did not say that 
you were not her child, she meant only, that by some as yet 
inexplicable (but perhaps to be explained) condition of things 
— she does not know that she is your mother. What does 
that amount to more, than in my case? I do not know my 
mother. I cannot with any effort recall anything but a mem- 
ory which begins with a certainty that I have forgotten some- 
thing that included the presence of other persons, circum- 
stances and states of daily life. I do not know who my mother 
was. I know she was said to have been a saint, and that my 
father (I will tell you all I know now) is said by Konnyngs- 
crown to have been the man who wronged Konnyngscrown 
out of his wife’s affections and fealty, — and — yes, I will tell 
you all that I can remember. I will even tell my clearest 
convictions of what seems the next link in the chain.” 


Who Builds f 


247 


He stopped catching his breath and filling his lungs; and 
then, — 

‘^Now Geraldine, sister of my childhood, friend of my mys- 
tified youth; companion of my now oncoming discoveries as 
to lineage, I will ask one thing of you, and that I need not 
ask. It is already granted by your now balanced character.’’ 

^^But, — say what you were going to, all the same, — ” 
said Geraldine, intensely attentive. 

will. It is this. What I do remember of the past out 
of which I was lifted when the young German fellow (whom 
I learn is dead) brought me here sick and forlorn, is this: 
I came from where there was a picture of a woman whose 
beauty was the most entrancing that art ever put on canvas. 
And I want you to consider with me the fact, Geraldine, 
that she was as like to you as though it had been painted for 
you, only— 

‘‘You can tell me nothing about that” said Geraldine 
breathlessly. “ Lamed- Ariosto knows about that picture, 
and so do I. When we went hunting over the old treasures 
in the chests and Indian baskets in the pack-room, up-stairs, 
I took from under the Indian stuffs, which mother, — no — 
sister Lamed Ariosto, — ” 

“Don’t dear. Well, yes, ‘sister Lamed- Ariosto ’ so let it 
be,” said Mrs. Landseer. “Go on Geraldine.” 

“ — sister Lamed-Ariosto made into gowns for Ishtar.” 

Frantze passed her a glass of cold water; and tensely closing 
her eyes, she cleansed them of the fiery water of tears which 
dried themselves, and drove themselves back to the brain, 
strengthening it, because unshed, then went on. “I took out 
of one of these trunks the porcelain of Venus Victrix, — which is 
the Venetian original I believe of the painting of which you 
speak; and from a fabric in the same chest, I made a robe, 
the facsimile, for shoulder effect, of that which that victorious 
Venus wore. And one day lately I showed myself in it to, — 
to sister Lamed-Ariosto; — and to Ish.” 

She said this one word ‘Ish’ in such a way that Frantze 
knew the story of Ish was as well known to her as to anyone 
well-learned in ‘the generations of the sons of God’ whoever 
that may be. 

Then she said, “Mr. Konnyngscrown knows I am that 


248 


Who Builds ? 


woman^s reflection; and he knows that that woman is his 
wife; and he knows that he does not know where the child 
of his wife is, whether dead or alive. And he knows that if 
if you, — O Frantze it is too horrible — 

“No it is not!^’ said Lamed. “Nothing is horrible, nothing 
is bewildering but the ignorance of the broad facts of each 
case, on which nevertheless this ignorance dares pronounce 
condemnation, and to which it dares affix punishments. An 
ignorance which we will all unite against, in order to replace 
it with a spiritual intelligence concerning the broad facts of 
every case. 

“My children, we, the Landseers are not alone in our efforts 
to throw an electric search-light into conditions not hereto- 
fore comprehended.’’ 

“Yes,” said Geraldine, “and Konnyngscrown thinks I am 
the daughter of Venus victorious; but if she gave me your 
father as mine, then we are practically brother and sister, 
Frantze. And he sees that your love for me, and mine for 
you has been a love that could not easily understand itself.” 

“Go on” said Lamed-Ariosto. “You may be right in your 
final conclusions; a real change may have been made. It has 
been her in you that I dreaded.” 

Frantze looked down, thinking that no child could be more 
like her mother than Geraldine was like Lamed. 

“Poor Geraldine,” said Lamed. 

“Poor Konnyngscrown I should say” said Geraldine, 
swiftly. “Don’t you see Frantze, all of these complications 
crowded his words with terror that night in the storm when 
he not raved, but tried to unravel the mystery and the misery 
which ignorance of the simple facts of each case forces on 
every question, through the solution of which the sons of 
mere instinctive-Adam, go blundering forward?” 

“These complications did fill his thoughts as they did mine” 
said Mrs. Landseer. “Now listen carefully. The age has 
come in which men of the Gueber type (pronounce it with 
G soft before U and E and it will give you Zhueber, or Judah) 
will know themselves, not as mere tribemen of problematic 
history, but as ‘strong men’ found here and there wherever 
the vital power is reverenced by a rightly-minded parentage. 
These typical Gueberites were men of the Tribe of ‘individual 


Who Builds ? 


249 


action, who asked no favors, gave no interference and offered 
no rivalry/ Their self-poised principles would have served 
upon which to have founded the Constitution of the United 
States. By selection they were not fighters; they were think- 
ers. Their standard was the lioness and her whelp. The 
symbol of that regnant mother which, with the child, is safe 
from desecration where men are ^strong,’ and reciprocally, 
the men are strong men wherever the mother is safe from 
desecration. 

^‘It was from the Judean and Benjamite mothers that 
the virgin-natured Jesus of Bethlehem came. For the science 
of the evolution of subliminal-virginity was the science with 
which (when men were wise, not wanton) education concerned 
itself. And it is the glamour of that education and the results 
of it which are alluded to hushedly, as the ^mystery of the 
ages.^ But no mystery was made of the matter until after 
bad laws had stultified and silenced woman concerning the 
sanctities of nature. 

‘'These facts are not unknown to that race which is to-day 
claiming the right to overturn our Constitution precisely be- 
cause it stands for that individuality of action that inher- 
ently belongs to this, the youngest of all nations — the Ben- 
jamin of all nations; the nation most inherently able to stand 
in that individuality which like Judah’s, ‘asks no favors, 
gives no interference and offers no rivalry.’ A nation which 
for these very reasons cannot combine as against the rest 
of the world with a faction yclept Anglo-Saxons; which the- 
atrically figures as the ten lost tribes of Israel. 

“It is too late in the epoch to countenance this ‘against- 
ness.’ It is time for the ‘gathering together of all nations’ 
under that Gueber and Ish principle which is the last, as it 
was the first principle of creative action. Who Judah was, 
the quotation shows which declares ‘her brothers bowed 
before her’ willing to make it known by this reverence that 
their higher powers had accrued to them, from their obedience 
to HER.” 

Lamed spoke as if on fire from heaven. She knew that 
the effort to evolve this brain-building virtue at times so 
furiously had impelled the Ghibellines (were they GheuherYmes^) 
that, in the rebound there had arisen another faction of those 


250 


Who Builds? 


who were equally impelled to choose in freedom a life beyond 
the dictation of hierarchical teachers: and that those who 
were caught in this rebound, did not care to believe that there 
need or could be anything superior to a good digestion and 
a good body generally considered, with a good sword arm 
attached. 

According to Lamed’s liberal belief, the Adamic man and 
Guelphs had a right to be themselves within scientific bounds 
of that individual degree of development, as much as had 
the Gueberites (or Ghibellines) or Benjaminites, and sons of 
Ish, — unmolested, the right to evolve their ever-increasing 
faculties. 

An invaluable cast of the ^ white horse’ of the Saxons graced 
the walls of the Landseer home, placed there by Landseer 
who loved it better than any winged thing that could be put 
before him; and as well loved he the doings of the Saxons 
whose standard it was. Like many of them, he was a 
violent sustainer of what he claimed was his right to be a 
good animal; (slight little fair-man, though he was,) and was 
wrathful at the impediments in the way of having as good 
a time as had a well-groomed, kindly cared for horse. 

He felt there was no pre-arrangement made for his comfort 
comparable with that, made in a well-kept stable, for the 
well-groomed lord of the stud. He was angiy at being balked 
of his rights to a perfected existence on the plane of life in 
which he chose to participate, without being made to think 
any less well of himself by any one. 

Lamed discovered herself telling something of this matter 
as she looked at the cast of the beautiful white horse. She 
somehow realized that while looking at it, a fair and singu- 
larly mutual understanding of the question at stake had 
apparently transpired between Archibald’s mind and her own. 
She was filled with a pleasant sight of the fact that the strifes 
of the past (even then unnecessary) were now preposterous. 
She believed that persons were dwellers in distinctly different 
sub-realms of action, and that these sub-realms accorded 
with their attainments, and their prevailing necessities for 
self-expression. 

Something of all this she said to the children, adding, — 

^'When a creature has outgrown the four-footed fashion 


Who Builds f 


251 


of standing on four feet (because two of what were once feet 
have turned into hands) then this improved animal is also 
mentally up off of the basis of action, which animal instinct 
impels; and has entered the immeasurable 'regions’ where 



new demands are made on him. Demands, the high charac- 
ter of which, includes the use of the complicated physical- 
mental-and-spiritual mechanism which is the boon and the 
burden of the self-recognized three-fold immortal. 

"The necessity of one who is a dweller on the threshold, 
at which overwhelming inspirations come at once from even 
three realms of action, are necessities, that at first make them 
to become budgets of confused and confusing antagonism. 


252 


Who Builds ? 


Such men never master themselves (nor really become mas- 
ter-builders) until they have learned how, at option, to close 
and to open the Gates, of these distinct realms. 

Archibald dwelt on such a threshold’ and was deluged by 
^necessities^ which brought to him all at once, overwhelming 
inspirations from these three realms of action. He had no 
idea how to manage the ‘gates.’ Worse than that he did 
not know that there was anything for him to learn relative 
to the matter. All he wanted was to teach others what came 
upon him like a deluge, in a manner so confusing that he him- 
self was but dazed. Daniel Heem understood Archibald’s 
troubles. He could have helped him, but Archibald could 
not or would not believe that Daniel foresaw that the end 
of this century would be deluged with the glut of the fires of 
inordinate covetousness as well as illumined with the fires 
of subliminal sacrifice. 

“He knew there would be hordes of men who, entrapped 
in covetousness, would treat Life as if it were but a thing 
to be annihilated instead of a thing to be magnified in its 
true glory. 

“At Tama’s request Heem came once to see me, but let 
that matter rest for the present. The time is near, Geraldine, 
when things relative to the cause of your antipathies shall be 
more fully made known to you. A company will soon gather 
to sift the truth. And as Emerson said — ‘ At such a time 
there usually leap out unexpectedly, three or four words which 
are the pith and fate of the whole business.’ When the new 
century is better developed, ‘the Elders of the Earth,’ with 
well annealed wisdom will be in conclave. Then the funda- 
mental mystery will be declared: and will become the motif 
for a gleesome roundelay, which taken up, part after part, 
the wide world over, will make the eternal arches ring with 
Messianic acclaim. Let the matter there rest, and let us each 
rest dear children, in the hand that guides and the power that 
builds.’! 


Who Builds? 


253 


CHAPTER XV. 

'The Medial Spirit: Virgo. 

"Simple and mixed, both form and substance, forth to perfect Being 
started like three darts shot from a bow three-corded. Thus even at the 
moment of its issuing did Eternal Sovran beam entire His three-fold op- 
eration at one act produced coeval. Yet in order each created, his due 
station knew. Those the highest, pure Intelligence were made. Mere 
Power, the lowest. In the midst, the Medial-Spirit, bound in strict 
league. Intelligence and Power, form and substance in unsevered-bond. ' ’ 
Dante. 

I SHTAR, standing at her window, looking out upon the city, 
was thinking of conditions there, and of those which she had 
left in the little realm over which, from childhood, she, co-op- 
eratively had presided. She held in hand a letter from Ger- 
aldine, giving an account of Frantze^s return, and of the con- 
versation with him which (she wrote), Three-corded^ had shot 
forth from the thought-world in which individually each 
dwelt, seeking within, for virtue, truth, freedom and justice 
to all. And that allied to this triple-cord was a certain Ethel 
Eloiheem, whose recent conversation, added to Ishtar^s talk 
on Calvinism, had apparently so freed Frantze from bondage 
as to have made the home-coming to be like the gathering 
of disciples at the supper. 

It was a Geraldinesque letter of twenty pages, with terms 
and turns of expression whose far-reaching significance Ishtar 
well comprehended. Glad she was to get it. For an occur- 
rence had met her on her arrival which brought to her mind, 
Emerson^s words, T know the world I converse with on the 
streets and in the city, and on the farm is not the world I 
think. I have observed this difference and shall observe 
it. One day I shall know the law and the value of this dis- 
crepance.’ 

Until this occurrence Ishtar would have said that there 
need be no discrepance between the noblest conditions im- 


254 


Who Builds ? 


aginable and the state of affairs reasonably to be expected 
on farms, city, and amid international world-wide condi- 
tions. 

Now she stood looking out at the dome of the Capitol, 
which, (seemingly floating aerially upward to the moon-lighted 
blue above) had carried her soul into reveries and phan- 
tasms of natural truths, too vast and multiform to capture 
in ordinary words. 

Then, as one suddenly Arm fixed on mental heights all her 
own, she uttered aloud Jamblichus^ words; and seating herself, 
she transcribed them as the beginning of her letter, thus : — 

^‘The gods did conceive within themselves the whole de- 
sign before they generated it. The gods did foresee that 
whereof there was no material copy’^: adding Geraldine, 
this is not only true of the building on which I look, but relates 
to the yet-to-be humanity: whose three-fold constitution is 
pictured to me, form and substance in the dome-surmounted, 
medial portion of our National Capitol: which now unites the 
first-built portions; for which George Washington, the grand 
Master-Mason, in 1793 laid the corner-stone. This triplicate 
governmental building is like the triplicate grand-man that 
is to be, to whose upbuilding I believe free-masons dedicated 
themselves in this country, as (while utilizing all that they 
could garner up from the Wisdom of the ages) they proceeded 
to free themselves and the country from hierarchical domi- 
nation; trusting instead to nature as a guide, ‘For nature 
is a most nice and delicate essence.^ 

‘T could not hope to suggest in a single letter, what all this 
means to me, did you not know already. 

“What I can tell you is, in a way, Emerson^s ‘One-Day’ 
has come to me, showing me (as I think) that the ‘discrep- 
ance’ is one that is existent because, outlooks are taken from 
so many different levels of view. This fact one comes to 
realize when, after having climbed the stairs in the Capitol 
one emerges on the balcony surrounding the cupola near 
the apex of the dome, and, looking thence, sees the great 
avenues of the city running like spokes of a wheel to its hub. 
Standing there one is able to ‘preserve a continuity-of view 
at the same-time,’ as said the French-planner of those avenues; 
giving us to realize that the ‘discrepance’ which exists between 


Who Builds ? 


255 


views taken from the cupola-like observatory of spiritualized- 
vision and the outlooks, taken from other mental-levels some- 
times to be found on ^streets, city and farm,’ is a ‘discrepance’ 
based on the points-of-view incident to the levels-of-ascent 
gained by the different outlookers. 

“As to the value of it, that seems to me clearly defined. 
It is the value co-incident to the 'preservation of Individuality. 
For as the (let us say) ‘twelve tribalized ’-sorts of Individuals 
look, each from his soul’s-windows at views within the scope 
of his peep-place, all goes well as long as he enjoys it and gets 
what good he can for himself and others out of it. But the 
trouble begins, when he begins to declare by all the Muses, 
that he sees it all; and that any varying report as to what the 
world-is made of, is a report to be choked down the throat 
of the blunderer. But even then, the value of the discrepance 
still exists, and is the exemplification of the Divine Right 
of the individual per se. And all goes well as long as the 
individual’s most emphatic hold to ‘the sight of his own eyes’ 
only induces him to civilly tell what he sees: thus bringing 
them all to compare notes ; with the upshot that by conferring 
thus together unfettered intercourse is had with persons who 
habitually look, not only from different windows but, from the 
different stages-stories and standpoint-levels which meeting- 
of-many-views, results in the enspiritizing of even those at 
the highest; and in the bringing to all, the assurance that 
there are even greater heights and grander outlooks free to 
all, who will climb for them! 

“This is a sketchy hint at the cause and the value of the 
discrepancies and differences over which some of us moan; 
instead of jollily enjoying them and discussing them and bet- 
tering ourselves through the use of them! I consider, we 
have a fine lively time in our family: though, from childhood 
up, those who are strangers to our manner-born, would think 
us a quarrelsome crew. 

“Now I respond to the opening of your soul’s recesses in 
this, your first letter to me, concerning the battle waged in the 
Telescope room. 

“It is apparent the Landseer-‘ troubles’ (to use a popular 
word) come to us because of the discursive-outlooks which 
we each take from heights to which we have ‘climbed while! 


256 


Who Builds ? 


(some) ^others have slept/ Yet if our history were recorded, 
I doubt if there would be much of popular interest to show 
for it all. Because, all we have gained, is that ^ virtue^ (which 
is ‘a straining and stretching and extending of nerved that 
lifts us to a vantage-ground mid air: in the reality of the ex- 
istence of which Hhe multitude^ does not believe. And which 
if it did believe, would in many cases have little charm for it. 
As that ^Virtue’ only increases one’s sight of and sense of a re- 
sponsibility for, the stress of all life : from atom to — well ? What 
is the level at which all strain is swallowed up in Rest, through 
some yet Higher development? I can only say relative to 
it, that long ago when I was a Rosicrucian I had doubt-filled 
glimpses of conditions, which, prophets, potentates and King 
Christus’-self travailed to see’ established as the self-recog- 
nized-personality of triplicate-Humanity. Conditions with 
which I (and you in your recent hour of agony) have come 
to know ourselves as part and parcel. I believe sursum 
corda was all a’cry in you that evening hour, pulling you to 
unification with ‘Pure Intelligence’: bringing you to affirm 
your willingness to descend to the inferno rather than to suc- 
cumb to mere, earthy, unintelligent demands. I am assum- 
ing to show you that, in your necessity to fulfill the utmost 
possibilities of your Whole-Being, you were yearning to unite 
with ‘highest Intelligence’: unmindful of the fact that this, 
too, is triplicate: and that even an exclusive union with it, 
would have identified you also with ‘the inferior, unformed, 
planetary elements of Intelligence’ as they ‘in due season 
rise and fall.’ So your shock and fear lest Lucifer, ‘the Bright 
morning star’ had responded to your readiness to descend 
to the pit, was well founded: and kept you from further com- 
plications: leaving you now free to adjust all complications 
by collecting yourself for union with (not ‘inferior, unformed, 
planetary, elemental but) with that Supernal, Self-centered 
Self-wholeness : whose Presence, centralizingly perfects ‘ all 
who come to it.’ 

“Now think back to the time when, after Frantze had been 
made Louveteau, you, hunting in the library for books on the 
matter, came upon ‘The Temple Vol. I. Magazine devoted 
to Masonry, Science and Literature: published in Philadelphia 
in 1851.’ And when, you dashed into it, theatrically reading 


Who Builds ? 


257 


aloud the editorial which asserted Hhe fittingness that Masonry 
(the oldest ( ?) institution now existent : and the most important 
as regards its bearings on the temporal welfare of the human 
race: whose principles are founded in the divinest revelations 
ever yet vouchsafed: and which has endured such assaults 
of despotic power, popular prejudice and slander as would 
have exterminated an organization not founded on Truth 
and having the good of mankind for its object: with nearly 
thirty centuries over its head), should now (contrary to earlier 
judgment which led to the repression of all writings) put forth 
a periodical to disseminate information among ourselves and 
to advocate its principles before the world/ 

“ How your eyes used to glow with devotion over the Templets 
avowal that it would enlighten its readers as to the unutterable 
truths which even then we were sure were for the upbuilding 
of a divine humanity. An upbuilding work which sent little 
me to take Konnyngscrown and his plans under my protec- 
tion, as against your distrust of him. So when he told Frantze 
he would teach him those things if he would apply his heart 
to wisdom, I considered we needed only immediately apply our 
hearts to wisdom, and get first hand, what Konnyngscrown 
had conditionally promised later on, to teach Frantze. 

^‘You remember when we went to mother a Tremble with 
joy over it, she said to Tama The deluge which sent Archibald^ 
mind aTtaggering has come upon these children; and special 
Grace alone can keep them from being swept into a current 
which becomes erotic if not ecstatic!^ And TamaT reply, 
‘Jes^ trus dem wif de Lord.’ 

think we prenatally held a clue to the secret of the 
^hidden of the hidden.’ Therefore we shall be inexcusable 
unless we stand firm-footed amid the buffetings of earth’s 
conflicts. Neither being swept away by, nor becoming addi- 
tional makers of conditions to which Konnyngscrown al- 
luded that hate-filled but useful day, when he said, 'Young 
women are the curse of young men’s lives.’ Sure I am that 
there must have been something very serious in his mind or 
he never could have said it. And the reference you make 
in your letter to conversation about the eagles with the 
averted faces, shows me that the younger brother, as well 
as the elder, knows or ought to know that he must build his own 


258 


Who Builds f 


house in order to take the additional upstep which will make 
him to be the true Hu-man, the same as he must leave the 
older brother to take the up-step which is now ascribed to 
one woman: and which remains as a merely legendary possi- 
bility attainable by others. 

^‘Realizing all this at the time of Konnyngscrown’s out- 
bursts, I then felt that he should be made to eat his words; 
but when I reflected on how we women are made to appear y 
as compared with what we potentially arc, I instead, ate his 
words. And though I found them very bitter in the mouth, 
yet, digesting them brought me knowledges which led me 
to avoid Hhe superfluous trouble and trifling folly of seeming 
to be wise,’ instead of seeking to become so substantially 
wise as to be a real savior of men, who, like my father, stag- 
ger under this deluge of Are, flood and whirlwind; until mad- 
dened, they blow out brains whose unadapted convolutions 
have left them unfitted to sustain (much less contain), 'the 
coagulated-light’ that seeks admittance there. 

"How I came to see all that, when suddenly I turned from 
Konnyngscrown that infuriated day I can hardly tell: unless 
my father’s thought of it, as he dwells in calmer realms, was 
transfused through my being? No, The Eternal God’s knowl- 
edge of it, came to me, if the thought was true. 

"Geraldine, it is time women (who are women) assumed 
their mentally-Mary-like-functions as mothers of men who 
are born, but not bred to the business of carrying their load 
up the heights of that Calvary where it is their business to 
place it. 

"I am today writing you the plainest letter I can possibly 
utter; so that understanding each other and ourselves, we 
will never take any part in any amusements or schemes, which 
arrest the amassment of that 'light-power’ which is the brain- 
wealth that must be amassed as being the brain cell-' substance ’ 
transmittable by us in our work as the builders of the man 
that-is-to-be ! ” 

Ishtar then referred to the gusto with which Geraldine used 
to repeat the Masonic quotation that: "When clouds and 
desolation hovered over this land, men and patriots cast them- 
selves into the breach: many of whom were brothers of the 
mystic tie,’’ reminding her of the running performances which 


Who Builds ? 


259 


they carried on through their childhood as stormy day enter- 
tainments, in which theatricals Geraldine always figured as 
George Washington, decked out as Grand Master, when, on 
the 13th day of September 1793, he officiated at the lay- 
ing of the corner-stone for the first portion of the Capitol. 
And, of her solemnity in the business of arranging stage- 
effects in the library, for depositing in a cavity which was in 
the heart of the corner-stone, a vase containing certain pre- 
cious treasures ^worthy of mystic burial,^ as Frantze said; 
when he was called upon by Geraldine to apply the level, 
square and plumb Mo see if the cornerstone were well laid and 
properly formed of materials suitable for the purpose for 
which it was intended.^ 

^‘Then came the ceremony of putting corn, wine and oil 
on the stone, over which you pronounced the words, 

^‘‘May the All bountiful Creator bless the people of this na- 
tion. Preserve the workmen from any accident; and bestow 
on them the corn of nourishment and the oil of joy.^ Adding, 
in the words of the Grand Master who officiated July 4th 1851, 
^with this gavel which was used by the immortal Washington 
at the laying of the corner-stone of that Capitol, and clothed 
with the same apron he wore, I now pronounce this corner- 
stone of the extension of this Capitol, well laid, true and trusty.’ 

^^Then Geraldine, you remember Frantze, as, Speculative 
mason,’ at this point in the drama, presented the tools of the 
profession to me, to whom you gave the part of Mhe accom- 
plished architect ’ ; saying to me very seriously, ^ May you see 
your work go on and the cap-stone laid under circumstances as 
auspicious and happy, as these, under which the corner-stone 
has now been laid!’ Giving me to repeat that solemn por- 
tion of the service, which stated that, ‘At the time of laying 
the cornerstone of the building put up in 1793, it was thought 
that that building would be ample for the growth of a country 
whose national policy was laid in the pure, immutable foun- 
dations of private morality and founded on the recognition 
that there exists in the economy and force of nature, an indis- 
soluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty 
and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest 
and magnanimous policy and the solid reward of public pros- 
perity and felicity.’” 



At this point in her letter Tshtar laid down her pen, won- 
dering why they, the Landseers were so hounded down to 


comprehend what ob- 
for which they felt 
cretly. Then she 
with students of phil- 
Anglo- saxon -race- 
to their antagonists, 
either that they lacked 
jected to admitting 
ural facts of the case, 
know the ^last word/ 
Lord God Almighty as, 
figure as being. They 
they keep within the 
vidual-liberty. The 
However in the Ma- 
cessive degrees of at- 
before Masons for con- 
each step of moral and 
ment comes-not as im- 
but as righteousness to 
sonal effort: till, 
above the narrow, 
mid the diminution of 
The Whole may be 
suppose Masons 
plishment of this Mag- 
with the evolutionary 
and outlooks are natal 
^^Now for a confes- 
^^Full of joy that 
much to fashion our 
I came to Washing- 
up to Jerusalem. 

Again Ishtar laid 
dering whether it were 
and try to picture the 
dial Spirit, Virgo'; who, 
ground to catch the 


ject men had in view, 
called to toil so re- 
wrote: ^The trouble 
osophies dear to the 
worshippers , as well as 
seems to have been, 
scope of vision or ob- 
the self-evident nat- 
that they do not yet 
nor are they yet the 
they at times, tend to 
are ever-so-good, if 
bounds of mere indi- 
same as are all the rest, 
sonic-system the suc- 
tainment ' are placed 
sideration : in which 
intellectual advance- 
puted righteousness 
be attained through per- 
emerging on heights 
winding climbing way, 
parts and particulars, 
seen in extenso. 
know that the accom- 
num Opus is in line 
methods whose heights 
to womanhood? 
sion. 

Masons had done so 
country's aspirations 
ton as devout Jews go 

down her pen: won- 
worth while to pry into 
conditions of the ^Me- 
ever laying ear to 
cries and plaints of 


earth, with open mouth under the winged-foot of the toe-poised- 
Mercury, gives him the message with which, with raised staff. 




he hies away, challenging the gods of Olympus, to hear it, 
and obey. 

What had come over 
her? 

She arose and went 
to the window, stand- 
ing and looking out 
on the moving figures 
that, at a distance, 
seemed as much like 
ants, as, men and , 
women. 

But Ants? The 
dear provident, indus- 
trious little creatures 
were greatly loved by 
her. They and their 
different families were 
objects of her oft in- 
specting-att enti on. 

And now, uncon- 
sciously transferring 
their excellencies to 
these larger home- 
makers, she forgot her 
discontent in admira- 
tion of something 
which awoke aspira- 
tions for these persons’ 
perfect prosperity in 
all their good efforts. 

She knew Ants, so 
very well, and had so 
often followed up 
(week after week) the 
inspection of their 

toils and triumphs, that, it was but an extension of 
the same whole-hearted, intelligent sympathy, which now, 



262 


Who Builds ? 


without any change in its benevolence, brought her, the old 
certainty that there were no upper realms which are not 
grounded and founded on the works, ways and days of those 
realms below: whose creatures contribute that which causes 
the animal-plane to be as much a part of man^s pneumatolog- 
ical-needs and supplies as the Hhree Mothers, Air, Water and 
Light ^ are a part of the above and below whether relative 
to static or hypo-static existence. 

Now, again firm fixed on the mental-heights all her own, she 
knew what had ailed her. She realized her carefilled-study 
of Geraldine^s simply, intellectual-questions had set her long- 
ing for a release from her own more complicated and hardier 
business as a ^Medial Spirit.^ 

And now, mentally-replaced ^Gn the Midst’’ where, as 
^ Virgo the Medial Spirit ’ she belonged, she re-settled herself to 
fill the position and do the duties of one who is ^ bound in strict 
league form and substance, intelligence and powef — grateful 
that she was not merely an isolated Intelligence powerless to 
perform what it can propose while having to wait for helpers 
to come and test its theories for it. 

So, now content and self-poised, she settled to her business 
as a toilsome-discriminative (as well as a distributive) agent: 
whose works and ways might never bring praise in all her 
days: though the winged-footed Mercury should carry the 
results of it through realms abroad. 

Those highest, Pure Intelligence were made. Mere Power, 
the lowest. In the Midst, the Medial (or Mediatorial) Spirit, 
bound in strict league. Intelligence and Power, form and 
substance, in unsevered bond!” 

So, at least, said Dante. Hers then it was to substantiate-in 
action and in new-forms-of-life, that which Intelligence (other- 
wise powerless) put forth in teachings, words and visions of 
things too often unpracticalized and unformulated in action 
by the mere talker and preacher about the ^ possible ’ ! 

Had she then let go on Intelligence, in this renunciation of 
^ the isolated ’ highest ? Or what was it had befallen her, when 
that sundering of halves” had seemed to have afflicted her? 
What had befallen her was a donging for power.’ Power- 
pre-eminent which would enable her to well punish the 
something or somebody who (since she left home) had 


Who Builds ? 


263 


brought on her that smouldering-wrath, which, muffled back, 
had none the less continued to burn into her very vitals ever 
since that episode had taken place at her arrival in Washington. 
She had longed for Power, Power, the lowest,^’ said Dante: 
speaking of the isolated-use of itself which ^ Power ^ so often 
merely attains as It seeks to dominate the freedom of any degree- 
of-Intelligence even to a robbing it of its right to identify itself 
if it chose, with the ^ inferior, elementary-forms ’ of its triuned- 
being. But still reserving to herself the business of finding 
out how to deal with the anger-awakening offence, she yet 
commanded herself to hold herself to the work of that ^^Intel- 
ligence and Power bound in strict-league’^ which ‘work’ it was 
her horoscopic-birth-right-and business to achieve. 

And glad to have found herself and her work and to have 
learned the 'discrepance^ between her work and Geraldine^s: 
she sung aloud her wierd little song: 

‘‘Heaven above: Heaven beneath. 

Stars above: Stars beneath. 

All that is above is beneath, 

Understand this, and be happy. 

Then ready to leave for-future-use all the matter which 
had befallen her, she resumed her letter to Geraldine, begin- 
ning it with the quatrain that she had sung and proceed- 
ing to say, 

"I am glad things occurred as they did, consequent on your 
act of prefixing to my letter the word 'Spinster.^ For cir- 
cumstances followed which opportunely gave me to see, 
that a superfluity-of-speech and a too assertive-talk about my 
own activities and theories, (well enough when carried on 
among 'my own people 0 are open to correction now that I am 
among persons who will instantly question motives, and interpret 
them as accords with what would be their own, if they ex- 
pressed themselves in like acts and ways. I now face the 
fact that I am among persons, not precisely my friends: persons 
to whom (though an individuality of character might, for a 
while be attractive) a pugnacious individualism would be 
found to be neither attractive as a decorative effect nor as 
a huilding-material at-all-serviceable at this advanced stage in 
National and Social construction. 


264 


Who Builds ? 


hunting myself up, I find I am greatly elated at being 
an accredited teacher at the Capital of my Nation, and, at 
finding my original idea of education is at-one with that avowed 
by the Commissioner of Education who said, Republic 
cannot exist unless its people are educated ^ leaving the infer- 
ence to be drawn, that the way to preserve the Republic is 
to educate the people in a practical recognition of the ^self- 
sovereignty which exists in the heaven-and-Earth-league : the 
end and aim of which is the perfecting of the individuality of 
each-in-that-ScZ/-use the benefit of which finally accrues to the 
benefit of all-concerned. 

Then she related the experience she had met on her way 
to Washington, which gave her the shock that persons-too 
felicitously sure of themselves and of their relations to the 
rest of the world apparently need to get before they fully real- 
ize that other equally good and happy souls may walk into 
snares quite innocently: appearances to the contrary, not- 
withstanding. 

The case was, Ishtar had fallen into conversation with a 
fellow-traveler whom she roundly questioned as to whether 
men and women were combining to bring about results such 
as would baptize every Nation in the world with the inspirit- 
ing knowledge that every soul had a right to Life, Liberty 
and the pursuit (yes and the finding of) Happiness. Quite 
ignoring the confusion which had come on that, our 'primal 
statement; which confusion had left the judicial Mind aTeel- 
ing as to the fact that the ^people are the Government.^ And 
as she had talked over her theories of the rights of the Indi- 
vidual, her interlocutor — Mrs. Mowbray — had amusedly seemed 
to be helping her on. For in fact, to this woman, Ishtar had 
seemed so jocund and yet Juno-like in her verve and beauty 
as to present unusually attractive social possibilities. 

Ishtar had not mentioned her name, destination or purpose 
in Washington. And as many women arrive in Washington, 
whose purposes are not at first very clearly defined to them- 
selves, it had happened that when the train came into the 
depot and the expected ^Mr. Konnyngscrown ' did not, this 
Mrs. Mowbray, giving a quick mental glance at the case and 
at the peculiarly ingenue words and manners of this beautiful 
traveler, invited her to take a seat in her carriage, which she 


Who Builds ? 265 

said, would pass Mr. Konnyngscrown^s house as it adjoined 
hers. 

Then there had come (from whence?) to Ishtar a sudden 
comprehension of the thing intended. 

And taking the woman's hand, all motherly, she had said, 
What you are thinking, is quite wrong, dear soul." While 
heavenly pity-for — not herself nor the woman but — for the 
city where such things are, filled her eyes: which lifted just 
then, met those of a man who, thrusting forward the letter 
she had written to Konnyngscrown and pointing to the word, 
^Spinster,' said, 

Madame! It is that word which misled me. I have 
seen you, but was waiting for ^Miss Landseer; Spinster!^ Mr. 
Konnyngscrown being hindered from coming, sent me with 
this other note, telling you so and asking that you would ac- 
cept my escort instead." 

The man's words were abrupt and his eyes and hand were en- 
gaged signaling an officer to whom he conveyed what was nec- 
essary to prefigure a case and a criminal like this one, to whom 
— with amazement, he now saw this goddess-maid give her 
hand as she said, ^^Do Right" — as she might have said it to 
a child in a mission school who derelict was snatching an 
apple. And with a shrug of his shoulders and an uplift of 
his suspicious eyes to Ishtar's calm orbs having disposed 
of one woman, he led the other (for so he commonly in thought 
dealt with them all) to the carriage seating himself therein 
opposite to Ishtar, as the landau rolled away to its destination. 

Meanwhile, Ishtar had had but one thought. It was that, 
the world she had thus seen on the street was not the world 
she had thought in her study. 

Hence, her aftersearch for the Law and Value of the Dis- 
crepance. 

Meanwhile, the man before her looked like many others, 
except that three lines ran across his forehead just above 
permanently uplifted brows; and under the brows were keen 
and kindly eyes that had puzzled over many miserable things, 
which, as he could not personally rectify, he desired to be not 
bothered about. His youth had waned and dyspepsia had 
set in. Long ago he had decided that women were to be 
pitied, but guarded against as liable to be troublesome and 


266 


Who Builds ? 


expensive one way and another to a man who had a soft side 
to his heart. He had been born and bred in Washington; 
and he and his father before him, very well understood the 
strife which, like a masked battery had been steadily brought 
to bear against the ‘perfecting of our principles all by our- 
selves alone,^ ever since the far-away day when our country, 
stultified itself by placing in the vice-president^s chair, a man 
of foreign birth who was an alien to our principles, instead 
of being a born citizen of avowed allegiance to those principles. 
Thus opening up the way for an alien to become president of 
this country and to carry forward anti-American transactions. 

The quality of her escort^s conditions and troubles generally, 
did not escape Ishtar^s attention, as, at ease, opposite him 
in the landau rolling onward to his mother's house, for the 
first time, she caught sight of the dome of the Capitol which 
seemed floating up buoyantly toward the full moon, that, as 
buoyantly, seemed to be lifting it to the blue realm above. 
Meanwhile Hector Alton was thinking to himself, that though 
he had seen many kinds of women, he perhaps had never seen 
this kind. It was only perhaps — for while life had taken a great 
deal out of Hector Alton, it had left him (beside one other 
much better thing) a restless, gnawing suspicion as to women 
and their motives. He could not at all make sure that any one 
untrained by art, could look and speak in so artless a manner 
as did this regal beauty, who rested as when first she had be- 
stowed herself in the carriage and her attention on the scene 
through which the carriage passed. 

Up to the time of ‘getting her clothes for the trip,' as her 
term went, Ishtar had had no knowledge of her peculiar beauty 
of face and form. She had noticed that she had ugly hands, 
because the ‘not beautiful' was to her very noticeable; dwell- 
ing as she had amid beauty, external and internal, ever since 
she had had breath. 

The old chest had been overhauled and East India and 
other beautiful fabrics had been brought forth. She liked 
them, for they were redolent to her of historic interest con- 
cerning the quality of life enlarged and enlargingly led by those 
of her family. And the robe and the reception toilets with 
Geraldine's added gift of the black silk and the irreproach- 
able traveling outfit, were but a getting together of family 


Who Builds ? 267 

belongings which resulted in showing her to the world as a 
beautifully adorned, beautiful woman. 

She was glad of this too. In this condition she felt natural 
and at home in the easy carriage and in the easy Washington 
atmosphere. True, her mother had objected that Geraldine 
had over-costumed her, but when asked if there were display 
at any point, Mrs. Landseer had admitted that it was not so 
much the gowning as the Ishtar that was striking. To this 
Geraldine had retorted, 

^Mt is not so much the Ishtar as the school-marm spinster 
who is the disharmonizing element adding Abolish her” 

Ishtar wanted nothing abolished; not even the word spin- 
ster which Geraldine had added to the letter and which had 
misled Hector Alton. This name Geraldine had added to 
the letter, just as she had added the costumes to the ‘farmer.’ 

Mrs. Alton’s handsome but not happy face had flushed to 
the roots of her white hair, when her ‘only son” (as she always 
called Hector) had brought back from the depot this unspinster- 
like looking woman, whose appearance had caused Mrs. Alton 
to feel that ‘she had gained access to the home under false 
pretenses.’ 

While Mrs. Alton was noticing these points Ishtar was notic- 
ing the quite sumptuously furnished house; and deciding that 
room and board in it (for she was still forced to be ‘moneying 
all the time’) were out of proportion to what Mrs. Alton knew 
to be the salary given to a teacher in a school of the grade 
now placed under her charge. 

Mrs. Alton had learned that Jerome Konnyngscrown was 
‘no relation,’ but was guardian of young Anueland who was 
also a Masonic w^ard of Konnyngscrown, as he had been a 
Masonic protege of Mr. Landseer. In reference to all that, 
she told Hector she was afraid that conditions would give 
rise to criticism. To which Hector had replied, “that is 
very probable, if you choose to start the ball rolling” showing 
Mrs. Alton that for once Hector objected to criticism. 

The next morning the church bells were ringing as Ishtar 
descended the stairs, looking as crisp and alert as did the 
American water-lily which decorated her black velvet hat. 

That morning the audience room of the church was stuffy. 


268 


Who Builds ? 


as if the air of the 52 sabbaths of the past year were there 
hermetically sealed. Ishtar, who chiefly lived out of doors, 
and who when she was in the house, always had the windows 
open Ho let in the weather’ felt coming over her that frantic 
condition of pores and nerves with which the inhalation of 
the exhalations of seven or eight hundred people, more or 
less nice, affect such as she. 

‘^We are stifling,” incisively whispered this country-girl 
to Hector expecting he would manage to have a window let 
down. He but looked bewildered, and in a moment or two 
with her handkerchief at her mouth, she walked out into the 
fresh air which was symbolic of that Spirit of Life in which 
she must live, move and have her being, or not be at all. 

Afterwards when at dinner they all met Ishtar looking 
so bright and well, and when Mrs. Alton congratulated her 
on recovering from her faintness, then, Ishtar’s explanation 
that she had not been faint, ^'but famished for want of fresh 
air which she found outside,” marked her to Mrs. Alton’s 
sense of the situation, as a truly irreverent, ill-mannered and 
doubtful sort of woman. 

On Ishtar’s arrival in Washington Mr. Konnyngscrown’s 
note had explained his enforced absence; but that night he 
had returned to Washington and by chance had next passed 
the church just as Ishtar had come out for air. Naturally 
they greeted each other and had walked on to the house to- 
gether. Mrs. Alton, hearing of that, told Mr. Alton the close 
air was a subterfuge, and that things to her mind certainly 
looked bad. But Mr. Alton explained that Mr. Konnyngs- 
crown had already spoken of the incident as quite character- 
istic of Ishtar, who was not only entirely unconventional, 
but so regardful of health that she would have considered 
it immoral to have taken that poison into her body, which 
she literally considered to be ^ a temple of Spirit and there- 
fore to be most sacredly protected from injury. 

Mr. Alton had merrily declared that this Quixotic Hruth- 
ful James’ would bring upon herself plenty of misconstruc- 
tion, adding, “she is a very noticeable person,” and ques- 
tioning whether it were because of her walk, her complexion, 
or the radiant eyes above which there was a wealth of eye- 
lash to uplift as they unveiled themselves for the purpose 


Who Builds ? 


269 


of direct vision. To which Hector had answered, — either 
of these peculiarities should be instanced, the notability of 
her presence would be still unexplained.’^ 

This again showed Mrs. Alton that Hector wanted to hear 
no adverse criticisms passed on Miss Ishtar Landseer. 

Ishtar had but just answered Geraldine’s letter when Frantze 
was back in Washington, meeting her at the table and attend- 
ing her in her walks to school in a way that seemed rather 
unbusinesslike to Ishtar. For she knew that teachers who 
are even well in harness have enough to do in keeping up 
with the machine-run demands of a system of education that 
requires the turning out of so many classes each year from 
the divisions in towns and cities, in order that the premises 
may be vacated and way made for the oncoming claimants 
who, unintermittingly press on attention, demanding place in 
the successive grades. 

Ishtar’s days were now packed full of intellectual benefits. 
Her evenings, her Saturdays and Sundays were claimed by 
people who loved to answer her questions and contribute 
to her mental enjoyment. At times she had plenty to show 
her that in a way, if she were really Ishtar Landseer, ‘ spinster,’ 
she would be better related to her task. But then she told 
herself critically and justly, that the world which she had 
thought,’ was a world that lived in allegiance to its own highest 
convictions; and that the world that she saw in the streets, 
was, to a painful degree, a world founded on compromise; 
that it was the world that she thought and not the world 
founded on compromise that she meant to teach her pupils 
to construct on the street. She explained to herself with 
critical exactitude, that she was a natural mind-builder; and 
that her nation (and she liked the sound of that) had engaged 
her just as she was and all of her, to do this work for its chil- 
dren. Therefore, she could not be permitted to let her per- 
sonal genius, large intelligence, embracive memory of facts 
and power to utilize them at need, nor her discursive imagina- 
tion,^ peculiar historic faculty and human foresight, go for 
nothing: and that these advantages would go for nothing, 
if she merely kept up with the breathless rush-ahead which 
machine-run education thrusts on whom it threatens to catch 


270 Who Builds f 

and crush, if she does not keep up with demands and out of 
the way. 

She had been preparing herself to do the work demanded 
in the way required; and had fitted herself to ‘fall in line^ 
as the term goes. But now, she did not want to fall in line, 
here or anywhere else. She knew the history and fate of those 
who, under an insane fury of a ‘machine-grind,^ make it their 
highest ambition to ‘fall in line and keep up with the proces- 
sion.^ She remembered that ‘to the energy of the individual 
conscience, is committed the liberties of the race.’ And as 
an educator she would not reckon on doing what men and 
women seem commonly forced to do; that is, ^compromised 
with some power in some one else, instead-of acting in fealty 
to the Power of their own acquirement of Intelligence. 

Perhaps the fact that the world is much as you take it 
and life is much as you make it, helped Ishtar to go on her 
way very tranquilly for a while. Busy as she was she seemed 
always very leisurely at her meals, coming to the table with 
the earliest and remaining nearly the hour. For she soon 
discovered that the fourteen hours a week spent breakfasting 
and dining in this house, were very valuable hours to her. 

For there were at the table two brilliant scientists, beside 
two brainy congressmen, an upright senator and other alert 
men and women. And in view of this fact she incidentally 
remarked one day that, as fourteen hours a week equal 728 
hours a year, or sixty whole days of twelve hours each, she hoped 
to listen to them all for a year at meal times, and thus add 
two whole months of educationally filled time to the ordinary 
twelve of the year. Then, like the country girl she was, 
she asked Senator Johns who sat next to her — if he knew 
a family in the region named Rawdon? The man to whom 
she spoke was a great Mason and evidently knew the family 
well; and gave her sufficient information to meet her need, 
as she confided to him the fact that she must give young Master 
Rawdon special outside attention. 

But the best laid plans of mice and men ‘gang aft a’gley.’ 
And even as she spoke, a letter was brought her from Geral- 
dine saying that, in response to an invitation from Mr. Kon- 
nyngscrown, she would be in Washington in a few days for a 
change. The words ‘for a change’ were so darkly underlined 


Who Builds f 


271 


that they looked as portentous as Geraldine felt her life 
had become. And Ishtar, rational unghost-bothered Ishtar, 
had a sinking of the heart that people could not ^let a dead 
past bury its dead/ instead of burrowing among unsavory 
blunders, the living potency of which she believed had gone 
forward on its way, leaving only such things behind, as friends 
might cheerfully allow also to rest in peace till the time came 
to utilize them. 

For she was a girl who liked the epoch she lived in and 
enjoyed taking up today’s duties at the point where she found 
them, instead of mousing over yesterday’s so called 'blunders,’ 
which she did not generally call by that name. 

When Geraldine arrived escorted from the depot by Hector 
and Ishtar, Mrs. Alton no longer doubted the social impor- 
tance of this set, now so markedly welcomed by all who met 

them. 

Ease, elegance and the manners of one life-long habituated 
to being well served exhaled from Geraldine’s presence; so 
that her little graces of gratitude for attentions which were 
rendered her, from the first, spurred up Hector to even better 
achievements. 

When she first met Mr. Konnyngscrown and Frantze, she 
smiled on them with the simple good nature of a child, pleased 
but not much excited at meeting old friends; though mean- 
while the one thing with which she had charged her mind 
was, to hold her tongue stilly whenever that thick thudding 
of the heart most impelled her to utter some word whose icy 
sharpness froze and lacerated. 

Even while she gave the men of the family her hand, soft 
and perfect, she was reminding herself to keep silence. And 
if for two days her answers were almost monosyllabic, she 
was none the less enchanting to look upon, and her way of 
meeting with pleasant quiet the words directed to her as well 
as others, did well for a while, till this recluse, (who really 
had nothing of social interest to discuss), in answer to the 
rather monotonous question "How do you like Washington?” 
rousing up, broke forth: — saying, "I hadn’t supposed it was 
so dull. This winter is really quite gay in New York”: and 

then, proceeded to present tidbits of social news, discussing 
things right and left in a way that thoroughly woke up Hector. 


272 


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Then the opera, the drama, the cast of different plays were 
handled with sparkling criticism; but politics^’ was avoided; 
though she aired two or three incidents which might have 
occurred in as many different seasons, relative to society's 
best habitue's, as she repeated hon mots and quoted opinions 
of brilliant people in a way which reflected brilliancy on her- 
self. 

Later, after some of the people had passed out of the parlors, 
Geraldine, with Ishtar, Frantze and Konnyngscrown entered 
the library. Looking challengingly at the trio Geraldine 
turned to close the door. 

Don't," signalled Ishtar. 

shall," said Geraldine aloud, unmoved, closing it with 
a free hand. Then coming near them at the further end of 
the room she said: — 

^‘You every one of you have dared to doubt whether I was 
telling the truth. For my own entertainment I choose to 
tell you that I chose to stop in New York on my way here. 
And there I went to the most desirable hotel; and that gives 
me the right to call it my hotel: and I went to the park and 
I did a great deal of looking about over things and places, 
concerning which I had taken care to thoroughly inform 
myself before leaving home. And I hired at the hotel a re- 
liable servant, a man in livery, who attended me as my ser- 
vant should ; so that all that I did was done en regie ^ as I shall 
always do everything, and in keeping with the name and 
character which I still bear, Geraldine- Ariosto-Landseer." 

And with a smothered groan this actor of the truth as she 
embraced it, sank into a chair. 

'^Then I have had all the valuable society papers and have 
kept the run of such things more minutely than as if I had 
danced and dressed through a hundred seasons with no regard 
for the relations of things or the principles at stake. Prin- 
ciples which are constantly forfeited to folly and fashion. 

^^Of course I have as much right to the social hon mots of 
London and Paris as though I had bored myself every season, 
picking up the useless trash. I know it all, and have expe- 
rienced it all, — all! 

^^And you? I am ashamed of you! You doubted if I 
were exaggerating my experiences? Aren't you all, every one 


Who Builds ? 


273 


ashamed? I cannot if I should try — I cannot exaggerate 
my experience. Everything is an old story. Well I am 
ashamed of you! Come away Ishtar with me. Leave the 
ingrates! I want you and I want rest.^’ 

Such a face as was turned on them, — (petulant, domineer- 
ing and wistful all at once) as, like a really offended good Juno 
she swept from the room. 


274 


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CHAPTER XVI. 

‘'Oh, righteous gods: how few of all the great 
Are just to Heaven, and to their promise true. ’ ' 

Odyssey. 

^^/^PEN the door, Ishtar,^’ said Geraldine about an hour 
later. 

The door was thrown open between the rooms. There 
stood Geraldine in creamy robes, clinging to a form as per- 
fect as Greek-art ever copied from Nature. Her face slightly 
turned over her shoulder as she looked back at Ishtar, showed 
moving lights and colors in eyes and cheek, and pearly teeth, 
flashing through parted lips. 

“Have you got that by heart she said, dropping all ex- 
pression out of her face as one might drop a withered flower 
to the ground. “Now look at this. This is a porcelain pict- 
ure of Jerome^s wife. I believe she is — Oh! It is useless to 
tell you, if you cannot understand. I hate my looks because 
I look like her. But yet I pity her strangely and would, if 
I could, comfort her in her needs. I know she was inherently 
good : that in some way Konnyngscrown was as much to blame 
as she was and — 

“Why WILL you go over it?^' said Ishtar. “What does it 
matter especially to us, if one woman among the billions and 
one man at one epoch of existence, chose to make self and 
each other, miserable? Probably it was a necessity of their 
conditions, at that stage of their existence. But is a whole 
family of bright people, two decades afterward, and in an- 
other country, to continue puzzling over the mouldy why and 
wherefore of it all? The most that can be said about it is 
that it was a disagreeable stage in events.’’ 

“But I pity them” said Geraldine: her face glowing with 
tears-unshed. “Besides! Why does Konnyngscrown look 
at me in that style: as if blaming me, for what I had nothing 


Who Builds f 


275 


to do with? No, not even if I (she whispered the words) 
‘^her child?’’ Adding, ‘‘He makes me feel as if I were respon- 
sible for it all. Ishtar, will you, can you hop into a dress and 
go down stairs a little way, and see if that was Konnyngscrown 
who just came in?” 

don’t understand,” said Ishtar. 

“No one asked you to understand?” said Geraldine. “But 
if you cannot do it without ^understanding’ go into your 
room, and leave me to attend to it.” 

Jerome, who had hurried through early evening engage- 
ments, had come in, to accompany Geraldine, Frantze and 
Ishtar to a later evening function. 

Hanging up his coat, he looked at his watch; and then with 
it in hand and his eyes still upon it, entered the library. 

Crimson curtains, walls and carpets glowed in the light of 
blazing chandeliers. Defined sharply against them, the grace 
of a vitalized statue filled his sight. 

Stepping in, head thrust forward and eyes fixed, softly 
shutting the door, he imprisoned the vision. 

Geraldine under the gaze, stood thrilled to the heart. 

“Thank you!” he said breathlessly, “I never saw woman 
so beautiful, no, not one.” 

White and motionless he held by a chair. She was at his 
side, pressing a picture to his gaze. 

“See,” she said, “I am like that. Is she your wife? .Am 
I your child? Tell me yes or no!” 

He had sprung back looking at her as if he had gone mad. 

“Answer me,” she said gently; helping to seat his trembling 
form. “Jerome I know something of this matter. I am bound 
to know all. You have done me great wrong. Distressing 
me with bewilderments which you ought to have cleared away 
from a little girl’s path. 

“Now tell me. Am I your child?” 

“God forbid,” he said trembling as if struck by a possi- 
bility of which he had never dreamed. 

“That is nonsense. God does not undo the done. Use 
your sense. Face facts. Help me to now hunt up this whole 
matter: seeing that your ways and manners have precipi- 
tated on me and the Landseers, this confusion. Answer my 
questions! Help me, as you ought to have done long ago. 


276 


Who Builds ? 


Tell me now and I will pull you through all this once more, 
this woman your wife?’- 

With arms outstretched he sprang towards Geraldine, beads 
on his pallid face, breathlessly whispering, — ‘^She was, is, and 
ever will be my Wife! Come, come to me!” 

Escaping his touch, more dead than alive, Geraldine sped 
to her room. 


Who Builds ? 


277 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Demand that spiritual liberation, which neither cultivating selfishness 
nor stifling it, lays hold on that Omnipotent Power, which enables justice 
and generosity.” 

TN an old Southern-house half mansion and half farm-house, 
^ buried in forest shades several miles from Washington, at 
break of day Maurice Rawdon lay awake pondering as he had 
fallen asleep, pondering, the night before. 

A disturbed, dream-peopled-slumber had given him as little 
rest as a night^s vigil with the insane would have done. For 
in his dreams, it was as if he were dealing with (not one, vocifer- 
ous, domineering voice : but) many voices : some urging him to 
do and some, not to do that which, on waking, with sudden joy 
he felt was to be done and that immediately. 

For as he awoke there were in his ears the words — “This is the 
Dawn of the New Age. ” Those, were the new Teacher^s words 
which she had spoken to him at her first greeting : when taking 
his two hands in both of hers, she had also said: “So this is 
Maurice Rawdon! He holds his world in his two hands which 
I clasp in both of mine as I wish him Luck.’^ And afterwards, 
when she had given the class in political economy an account 
of that ^spectacular scene, ^ which had illustrated in childhood 
for her the use of The Key, Intelligent Labor, she told them 
she had come among them to learn the more fully to use it her- 
self, as she taught them how. And Maurice wondering, look- 
ing at her hands saw, she indeed was a worker. 

And all this he remembered at the opening of his eyes and 
it seemed to him that the words, The Dawn of a new Day!’ 
/Intelligent labor, — The key to all Mysteries!’ were skittling 
around the room: adding high expectancy to the Knowledge 
that there was another key of the old-fashioned iron sort, 
hanging on a door-frame of a room that opened on a third- 
story outside-gallery. A gallery, a key, and a room, all of 


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which, all his life had carried to his mind something of horror, 
exactly because that key also was related to a mystery ! — the 
Mystery of the Rawdon House. 

^^Even that common-looking key^^ thought he, “is related 
to mystery!’^ But as for Hhe Key, Intelligent Labor,^ he could 
not bring himself to fancy that that would unlock (as the 
Teacher had said it would) all the mysteries in heaven and 
earth. 

^The Blacks,^ he supposed had used that for him and his, 
generation after generation. But this other key had long hung 
high up out of his reach. That had protected it from his 
meddling! For there was a mandate not to touch it, till, 
standing flat-footed on the floor, he could take it down. 

He felt suddenly sure he was tall enough to do that now. If 
so, he would do it. 

Hastily bathing and dressing, he climbed the back-stair-way 
to the great-upper stretch of gallery-girdled rooms; — hurrying 
through the dim passages, halting and peering down their 
lengths as though he heard again the shrill yodel and ^Ex- 
celsior,^ which ever echoes from height to height (so the teacher 
had said) ‘in the ears of those who hear Heaven^s call to them.^ 

For a moment it seemed as if the recesses of the long dark- 
ened passages were filled with ploughmen going forth to plough 
that others might sow and reap the results of that, which the 
right use of the key. Intelligent Labor unlocks and lets forth 
from Nature^s Eternal-Treasure-House. 

With beating heart, he now inserted the old iron key in the 
wooden door: trembling as if mysteries uncanny must burst 
forth at the opening of it and the windows : yet hastening with 
nervous speed he let in the sun which, just coming up over 
the hill, sent its rollicking-beams to join with the vigor of the 
stiff-morning-breeze that snapping at curtains and faded 
hangings sent them flipping up (as did everything else) old 
dust. Old dust: which infilled with new sunshine sped like 
flecks of gold into eyes that looked down from two pictures 
which now, like everything else in the room so dark a moment 
before, were illumined with the light of the new Day. 

These sun-flecked eyes looked — not at the spectator but — 
opposite at a crepe-veiled picture: hurrying Maurice to mount 
a table under it and, (tearing off the covering) sending him 
with it in hand jumping backward to the floor. 


Who Builds? 


279 


For eyes like a gazelle's for translucent radiance; and a mouth 
whose line of pearl-white teeth wholesomely brightened a pas- 
sionless smile had carried the boy’s thoughts away from all other 
mysteries, centering it on the mystery of the Rawdon House. 

With chin couched on throat as fair and with radiant eyes 
throwing back their light over her shoulder, she looked at him 
under an upheld apple, as a child might, at a mother who loved 
it well. 

Whatever an artist full of diablerie might have added, the 
brush that had painted this, had carried into that face no 
hint of false purpose or thought of guile. 

The soul that looked forth from those eyes was warm, not 
wanton. One’s heart might break at the frolic-grace of that 
gentle Love whose power to bear what it could not hastily 
better was there revealed. 

This winsome one? Was she Hhe curse of the Rawdon 
house’? He could not tell where first he had heard that? 
Could it have been from the dumb old servant (if she were a ser- 
vant and if she were dumb) who in dreadful silence went about, 
doing things that must be done: — with bitter manner, and 
blind, half seeing eyes, never petting Alice — the tall upgrowing 
maiden, nor extending greeting to the lonely boy? 

Trembling with — he knew not what convulsion of spirit, he 
softly left the room, closing it and locking it, like one who, un- 
aware had read a secret which (he knew not why) — seemed 
less his than another’s. He sped away to find her who had said 
to him ^^Your own world is in the hands I now grasp in both 
of mine, while wishing you good luck.” 

What he saw on entering the school room was the face of 
Geraldine as, turning her head, glancing downward and far back- 
ward, her chin drawn in close to her neck, the light of her fringed 
eyes fell into his. 

Speeding past her to Ishtar’s seat, he said, 

^^Miss Landseer, please — I — you — I want to show you some- 
thing at my home! Will you come right out after school, you 
and that lady? I am going home to make quite sure that the 
carriage is here by the time the school is closed. It is the mys- 
tery,” he whispered: and was gone, just first catching Geral- 
dine’s word, ^We will come, when the afternoon-session is over,’ 
as then turning to Lshtar she had said, '^He told us, Ht is the 
Mystery.’ And lshtar, that mystery is mine!” 


280 


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not distract the children's attention,” said Ishtar: 
swiftly writing: and then adding, ^^Take this telephone mes- 
sage to the public station which we pass, on the way here! It 
tells Mrs. Alton that we are to meet friends and may not be 
back to dinner. This other, is for Frantze, telling him we 
have gone to see the people of the boy of whom I told him. 
He will understand if there is anything risque about it: and 
will be there, though we may not see him. That, I did not 
request.” 

When the session was over, a close carriage drove up with a 
ponderous horse and with Maurice on the seat with the coach- 
man. 

The sun was setting among lurid clouds before they neared 
their destination. Beside the carriage trotted a big bull- 
mastiff whose low swinging gait told a story of contained 
strength. Geraldine^s gaze followed it, as again and again the 
brute halting, waited for the horse to come up; or, returning, 
uplifted to the window its blood-shot eyes and heavy dewlaps 
dripping with foam. With horrible fascination Geraldine^s 
eyes followed every onward motion and return of the monster. 
Twice she tried the carriage door; but for some reason, could 
not open it. She felt as if they were locked in and signified it to 
Ishtar. 

We are miles away from Washington” she whispered, “and 
close to that dog who acts like a trained man-eater.” 

He halted at that moment, looking from the driver up to the 
carriage window, as if to say, — “Is it time?” 

Ishtar, seeing Geraldine was nearly overcome with fear, 
spoke to Maurice of the beauty of the great creature and when 
he replied, “ ^Handsome is, what handsome does,^ and he^s very 
handsome in his actions,” it seemed to Geraldine, she could feel 
the dog’s fangs meeting through her spinal column. 

“It is close here Maurice. Open the windows” said Ishtar, 
which of course he readily did. 

When he was seated again by the driver, Geraldine with her 
lips motioned to Ishtar, “I told you to bring a pistol”: and with 
a full sense of Geraldine’s idea of the risque character of the 
affair, Ishtar rode on. 

Geraldine was not more at her ease when a strange-low 
whistle came from the driver. It, however, was answered only 


Who Builds ? 


281 


by the speeding forward of the horse over the ground. But if 
he had shot forth wings and if the earth had opened to receive 
them into Tartarus, Geraldine would have felt it but to be 
expected; so brain-strained had she become at the sight of the 
regular returns of the vicious looking dog with blood-shot eyes 
and dewlaps and ugly breathing uplifted to the window, as 
on they went over red clay roads and past ragged clay banks ; 
till suddenly they entered an avenue of trees which shut them 
in from the now faded rift of the western sky. 

A short bark was answered from the kennels; and a giant- 
sized negro, closing after the carriage the gate they had entered, 
led the way to a second enclosure, where, after entering it, they 
halted; and as the gate-man stood holding it, Ishtar, restrained 
further advance, and taking Geraldine^s cold hands, said, 

‘‘Perhaps you think it is too late to get out?” 

“Not if this were the crack of doom!” Geraldine answered. 
“Is not this the ‘next things? ” Then turning to Maurice she 
said, — “I am now to step out of the carriage into the jaws of 
that beast whose presence you have seen fit to inflict on us. 
I can bare my throat to his fangs. But if he touches me I will 
torture you and that black satan by your side. Look at me 
well. I have power that death cannot overcome. Do you 
understand that?” she said catching hold upon the driver, who 
staggered back with a yell of fear. Maurice caught the dogs, 
as another had come down; saying “It does not do to risk much 
with them. They are civil to those inside the gates: but those 
they have to fight never are able to tell the tale.” 

Geraldine stood trembling. Ishtar was thinking that, but 
for her letter to Frantze, such unbroken silence might fall upon 
them. 

The winds were soughing in the branches and other dogs in 
the distant kennels at intervals cleft the air with short, sharp 
barks. The sound of light wheels caught Ishtar^s attention. 
“You have visitors,” she said. 

“You have sharp ears,” he answered. “And you are doubt- 
ing me! Get into the carriage and ride home then!” 

Geraldine’s impulse to rebuke him was arrested by Maurice’s 
cry of ‘down sir.’ His struggle with the dog brought her to her 
senses. Then Maurice led the way as Geraldine imperatively 
bade him do. 


282 


Who Builds ? 


Something of the rough untidiness of a Southern plantation- 
house was about the outer rooms; in the second of which, 
Maurice stopped for a candle. And then, without a word of 
explanation, he led the way up stairs, not even looking to see 
if his visitors were following. 

Ishtar halted ; but Geraldine passed on as regardless of her 
movements as Maurice was of both of them till they were at 
the top of the house where, setting his candle down on the old 
stair-way Maurice took the key from the nail and inserted it 
in the lock. Ishtar laid her hand on his, saying 

^^Tell me what is in the room?'^ 

^‘Must, dust and the beautiful curse of our family,^’ he an- 
swered, looking at Geraldine, who cried out, — ^‘Unlock that 
door!^' And Ishtar stood back. 

The key clicked, the door was thrown open. The chande- 
liers were all lighted. Maurice, startled at the illumination 
cast a searching look about him and then went on. The others 
followed. 

^^How came that picture here?^^ was Geraldine’s sudden 
challenge. 

It is my father’s picture,” said Maurice. 

“ Look at it,” said Geraldine scornfully, recovering her breath. 
'^His father? He is as swarthy as an Italian; and this fair faced 
man is Fran, — ” 

^^And this is my mother,” continued Maurice turning to a 
woman’s face, fairer still. 

Geraldine incredulous and excited, wheeled about. Then — 
with white lips, clutching Maurice’s arm, and pointing speech- 
less at the picture on the other wall: 

‘^Called the curse of our house!” he said. But Geraldine 
gazed as though the velvet orbs had chained her tear-filled 
heart! It was a counterpart of the porcelain. 

The next moment, — ^^Not a curse,” said she ferociously, — 
^'but a blessing turned into a curse by man’s accursed method 
of dealing with his blessings.” Then suddenly she struck the 
picture a blow, crying frantically, — ^^That is but 'paint Ishtar! 
But a man with eyes in his heart painted it true! It is but paint 
and can — ” 

A maniac figure bounded in from the darkness beyond, full 
upon Geraldine. 


Who Builds ? 


283 


^'This next!^’ she cried as though under a spell as with 
clenched fist and well aimed blow, she met the oncoming fury. 
Then came a thud and a crash! — ^Then four white faces, each 
seen by the other, were in the midst of dust and silence. 

A fragment of moth-eaten cord trembled on the wall. The 
maniac woman and the picture of witching beauty lay prone 
together on the floor in the silence amid the dust and the dread 
of the thick pulsing hearts anear them. 

The next moment Ishtar, Geraldine and Maurice were put 
outside in the darkness, and the click of the key echoed in the 
stillness. The girls heard Maurice’s retreating steps. 

^^Have you forgotten your guests?” said Ishtar. 
am going for a light” he answered. 

‘^Take us with you. Walk slowly and we will follow you,” 
said she. 

And then, through what seemed to be interminable passages, 
Maurice holding Ishtar’s hand and Ishtar holding Geraldine’s, 
they groped their way to the room they had at first entered; 
and there, each confronted the other two pale faces. 

It was the last half hour before nine when the carriage stopped 
at Mrs. Alton’s door which Mr. Konnyngscrown opened for 
them. He asked no questions and the girls went direct to 
their rooms. 

Geraldine had not believed that Maurice had told all that he 
knew. Neither did she believe that the man so like Frantze 
Anueland was the swarthy Maurice’s father. In her impetu- 
osity she had been very rough and Maurice had become very 
angry. And at last had challenged her to tell why she was so 
like the curse of their house. ^^For she is the curse of this 
house, and more than that we are here because her grave is 
here,” he had said. 

Then Geraldine had determined to go at once to that spot, 
and read for herself the inscription on the monument. And 
on-borne by her they were soon out in the night, passing on 
beyond the house lot, through a neglected acre of brambles, 
through a tangle of gnarled roots, over fallen tree-trunks, — on — 
on, — under the changing lights of the cloud-riven sky. With 
her long dress uplifted about her, Geraldine tore blindly for- 
ward, her rufiles clinging to the briars as she passed through 


284 


Who Builds ? 


them; knowing nothing till she was suddenly stopped by the 
motionless Maurice, as he stood with outstretched arms, halt- 
ing her where he waited at a smooth-turfed enclosure from 
which uprose a white shaft. 

^^What is on it!’^ she cried. ^'Read the inscription aloud.’'. 

“The one word — ^Zelzah,’ — nothing more,” he answered. 

Then she had seized his hand saying, “Before Heaven have 
you told me all you know?” 

“Except that,” — his words had fallen like drippings from 
an icicle, — “that — she died in child-birth ” 

Geraldine turning, had torn away through thorns and briars, 
falling, but to pick herself up and dash on again to where the 
carriage had awaited them. 

And the ride home? It had been to Geraldine full of an- 
guish unsurmisable by Ishtar. 

The next day it was explained that they had come across 
old family associations: and had driven out with the son to 
trace things up. 

Geraldine was inflexible in her demands that they should 
keep their new discovery to themselves until the next Monday. 
But all day Saturday she abused Ishtar for digging up buried 
skeletons, and hoped she was content now with prying into 
the past. And then she implored her to leave Washington and 
to get Frantze away. Then she angrily accused Ishtar of already 
trying to cast her off. Then suddenly she said staunchly, — 
“There is nothing in this of interest to me, even if I should 
find myself to be some as yet, unknown claimant whether to 
the throne of the Csesars or to the heritage of paupers and 
criminals.” 

“Certainly not,” said Ishtar. “I have always faced with 
satisfaction the Napoleonic statement , — ‘I am ancestry.’ This 
is one of the set of bells which have rung me up to duty ever 
since the fact of having suicidal tendencies in our family began 
to bother us all, Geraldine. Once somebody said — as I re- 
member it — 

Leave ancestry behind! Despise Heraldic art; 

Thy mother be thy mind, thy father be thy heart. 

Dead names concern thee not; bid foreign titles wait; 

Thy deed thy pedigree; thy hope, thy rich estate.' 


Who Builds? 


285 


'^Now Geraldine/^ she added, interrupting another outburst, 
— must ask you to release my ears from any dirge-like stuff! 
I have my school-children^s living needs to attend to. I must 
concentrate my attention on teaching them proper regard to 
the business of so behaving themselves as to reflect credit on 
who comes after them; for whom they will be much more ac- 
countable than they are for their parents.^' 

'^Well, I will wait and hold my peace, said Geraldine then 
with a brave effort. The world is all a moral-muss in these 
days in relation to these kinds of things. 

Whatever the Altons thought of their guests, they found, 
they all seemed to be English enough (if any one can tell who 
of the conglomerate British subjects are English today) to dare 
to be silent. Suggestive questions relating to the ‘good old 
Virginia families,’ called forth all that was necessary but noth- 
ing that was not, in the way of information. 

Geraldine immediately wrote Mrs. Landseer an account of 
the affair. After which, time enough had elapsed for the ex- 
change of letters between the Rawdon mansion and the “Mas- 
ter’s House,” before there came to Geraldine this brief answer, — 

“Geraldine, sister Geraldine — 

“You see you are not friendless. There is to be a re-union of 
Ariosto-Landseers, Eloiheems and some others at the Mansion. 
What Maurice tells you we can believe. I shall be glad to see 
Margery. She is a good hater. Though for hate, the world 
finds little standing room today. 

“ I am about to start for Washington with Tama. You need, 
none of you, make preparation for me. My plans are laid out 
to the end of the journey; and you four will meet me at the 
Mansion on the evening of the day of my arrival which will be 
within two or three days from this date. 

“Have no solicitude about me. I am, in every regard thor- 
oughly prepared for the visit and for the consequences of it, as 
well as for the well-ordered life of usefulness for all concerned 
which will follow. 

“After twenty-five years of studious seclusion in a little New 
England town, I shall be as ready as any one for the well- 
advised, world-wide enterprises in which all the peoples of the 
earth (by the time this century is well in) will have intelligently 


286 


Who Builds? 


united for the administration of a scientifically-religious (and 
therefore) self-sovereign citizenship ! A self-sovereignty known 
to the Archsean Republic of the ancient time, dear to me. 

^^Tell Ishtar too, that I am the sister-woman of you both. 
Remember the term. For Geraldine, whatever disclosures 
may ensue, nothing can be evoked from darkness or from what 
1 may have to reveal, (/, who have lived between the cross- 
lights of the two worlds) that will make you anything less or 
more than my sister-spirit in strength of nature and hardihood 
of self-development. 

admire you very greatly as the bravest of the brave. 
When you have heard my story you will see that I understand 
through what you have been carried. 

‘ ‘ I am much more to you than the (often seemingly acci- 
dental) relationship of ^mother’ would, in itself, necessarily have 
made me to be. 

am, your sister, 

Lamed-Ariosto-Landseer, 

born, Lamed- Ariosto-Ralston-Rhoensteine.” 

The same hour they received a letter from the mansion; — 
which was a practical repetition of the business points in Mrs. 
Landseer^s letter, and for the rest asked their presence at nine 
o^clock, to meet Pere Allierri and others at the Grand gallery- 
entrance of the mansion in the forest. 

When the carriage slowly drew up before this gala scene 
(quiet withal, as at devotion^s hour) they found Pere Allierri, 
Konnyngscrown and many other guests, as well as members 
of the Order, awaiting their coming. Konnyngscrown pre- 
sented each to the host : saying briefly and with power. 

These are three young initiates and workers-out-of, each, 
his and her ^degree’ of attainment in truly Humanizing de- 
velopments.^^ 

The silence which followed these well picked words, showed 
the words were accepted as being his keenest attempt to speak 
of their several conditions, as he best comprehended them. 

The silence and who-shall-say what of Divine presence, gave 
assurance that on this occasion, the fleeting questions of mere 
fleeting time were to be of significance only as they were 


Who Builds? 


287 


shown to influence the forth-marching of the individuated 
army which, standing shoulder to shoulder, have held to their 
aspirations after the development of inherent moral rectitude: 
and have held to the affiliating (not the ignoring) of dif- 
ferences: the result of which affiliation this epoch is now 
exhibiting. 

It was evident the unusual bestirment was in honor, not only 
of the guests but, of the crisis which the guests had assembled 
to inspect and honor. A crisis brought forward by Builders, 
many of whom worked in (and before) Solomon’s time: con- 
structing characters and characteristics; — whose fineness of 
quality, rendered them capable of becoming ‘polished stones’ 
‘square, white stones, that agree exactly in their joints’: fit- 
ting, without mark or blemish, into the Universal Temple. 

The way was now led to the library where, tier on tier, alcove 
following alcove, were books, parchments and manuscripts in 
every tongue: selected and enshrined here as elucidators of 
the steps to be taken in the Magnum Opus of evolving the 
seven-times-seven-fold work of Building The Real Man. Some 
of them revealing critically, the artificially laborious work done 
by those who, trying to avoid work, made it laborious by ab- 
using instead of using God’s Great Gifts to them: working 
against nature: and then, in trying to undo the done, seek- 
ing ‘to take the Kingdom of heaven by violence: while saying 
to the ‘ elder brother’ : 

— be silent : nor reveal thy state. 

Yield to the force of unresisted fate. 

And bear unmoved the wrongs of base mankind — 

That last and hardest conquest of the mind. ^ ^ 

And Pere Allierri, repeating the lines, then held the com- 
pany listening to the voice of that ‘Silence,’ beside which the 
silence of the night-enwraped forest’s depth, seemed like 
tumult. 

Then he said: 

“We have come together to rehearse lessons which family- 
life has written in the beings of these three (and other) young 
persons: whose days of public service are nearing. 

“As the Creator leaves his children in freedom while en- 
vironing them with a care that with-holds them from com- 


288 


Who Builds ? 


plications of a sort, too mixed for immaturity to assimilate, so 
we, unseen helpers, in our degree have sought to do with you. 

^^Till now, when the fulness of time has come, you are to 
learn from the past, lessons which in the future you may con- 
tinue to practicalize in freedom, as best you may.’^ 

Geraldine shivered as she glanced about rooms where were 
seated members of families whose names Mrs. Landseer had 
recounted in her letter. While on easels, as participants, were 
portraits of men and women who, victorious or vanquished, 
seemed now come to hear the judgment of those, who in this 
present time, had had to reap the results of what these others 
in the past had sown. 

The three portraits which they had seen in the dust-doomed 
chamber were there. And there too, was the picture of Archi- 
bald Landseer, with the legend which his own hand had affixed, 
— wished, but was not able.^’ And there was a picture of 
a man — Oh! from whence and why, had such eyes ever looked 
forth from canvas? Was he mad? Diabolized? 

^‘Dwellers on the threshold of the new Age,’’ said Allierri, 
‘Hruths taught to observant souls in all climes and times, and 
which already have partially unveiled themselves before your 
minds, will now be more fully revealed as a few of this his- 
tory-making-family recount their private experiences. 

For ours are families, whose chief peculiarity is, that we 
learn by experience; and that we protect in the archives of 
memory and of our homes, the annals of family hidden-doings. 
This peculiarity mightily enhances our constructive energies. 
So that time and again our Egos emerge and rehabilitate them- 
selves in bodies which we demand shall be prepared of a sort 
fitted, to fulfil the purposes that we (or they) could not (or 
did not) perfect in our other bodies; when earlier we lived on 
the genealogical tree. This at least is my opinion. 

''Also, these purposes unrectified become but the more urgent 
in the new scions of the tree. So that even through pain — 
though less swiftly than through patient continuance in well- 
doing — there is finally worked out through successive incarna- 
tions, an uplift of the individual and so of the race. 

"This night you will more fully learn the truth that one 
mortal should not judge another by one specific act, nor by 
popular reputation. For in order to judge righteous judgment. 


Who Builds ? 


289 


it is necessary to leave to the credit side, the sum-total-of-the- 
past-e^or^s-which-each-individuars-experience {prehuman or 
pre-natal) may have accumulated; even though these efforts 
may not yet have been visibly assimilated into Character. 

^^It must be remembered that it is precisely these unassimi- 
Za^ed-efforts and-experiences which were on the books of your 
pre-natal lives. These, written in your sub-consciousness, 
spectre-like — haunted your brain-substance; urging you on, 
torment ingly at times, toward expression. This at least is 
my opinion! 

^‘Seemingly adverse circumstances added their influence to 
the friction which each of you young persons exerted on the 
other, as you lived in intellectual and moral freedom close to 
Nature^s heart. 

general acknowledgment of your right to choose it — if 
you wished to build a life structure which would be accordant 
with harmonious nature — assisted in bringing each of you to 
early apprehend the mysteries of your three-io\d. nature. Mys- 
teries that you have yet to master while dwelling in that at- 
tentive silence in which Nature ^ works on.^ 

‘‘To night you may be enabled to see Omnipotent 
Omniscience as the Endless End of All that Is. For into 
the silence known to lonian-Revelators as ‘The Word,^ you here 
enter. 

“Those of us then who have proved ourselves to be hearers 
and doers of this ‘Word' may if we choose, clasp hands in at- 
testation that we unite to serve the age in which we live as best 
each builder may." 

Pere Allierri arose, and extended his right hand to his guest, 
Daniel Heem; his left to Margery, calm in white array, who 
gave hers to the wondering Maurice. And Maurice quickly 
closed in his, the hand of the little maiden Alice, who reached 
out to the tall Frantze Anueland as he took Ishtar's other hand 
just as she had grasped Geraldine's, who then came into the 
circle with Tama's hand in hers. Jerome had hold on the 
hand of that wonder-woman, Ethel-Eloiheem as she walked 
forward holding Robert's hand. 

On Mr. Konnyngscrown's right stood Lamed-Ariosto-Land- 
seer with one hand resting on an easel the other side of which 
stood Althea Eloiheem, whose hand aunt Judith had taken, as 


290 


Who Builds ? 


she clasped DanieFs — the hand of hands to her on earth. And 
meanwhile others in the room had formed circles beyond that 
circle; which enclosed within it the several easels on which 
stood the portraits of builders who also had builded as best at 
their time they were able to build. 

A mystic hour it was. The eyes of Archibald and of the 
^ other Rhoensteine ’ as well as the blue eyes that had looked 
destruction into the soul of Jerome^s wife (so said the world) — 
gazed friendlily forth from canvas if from nowhere else; while 
from a picture, a little apart in its unreportable quality of spirit- 
ual-conflict, looked forth the deiflcally-impelled Rabbi Eloi. 
And other pictures there were, as closely identified with the 
doings of other egos there, as was this Rabbi with the now 
self-poised Robert, who had learned the truth of the inscription 
under the Rabbits picture — 

^^Each man is in his spectre^s power 
Until the arrival of that hour 
When his Humanity shall awake 
And shall cast his spectre in the Lake.^^ 

'^We are not all here,” said Pere Allierri, ^^and praise be to 
the Grand Master of the Universal Lodge, we should not be, 
though clasping hands we girdled the Earth. For before 
Solomon was King of Jerusalem society builders were upbuild- 
ing themselves and others in a world- wide social-structure: 
name it as you will. Daniel here, calls it — ‘The glorious com- 
pany of the sons of Liberty.' Archibald would have had us 
believe that an ‘ Aristocratized-set of rulers could be depended 
upon to harmonize Heaven with Earth by killing off — incident- 
ally — all such persons as rebelled against being subjects of the 
would-be-dominator ; name That Dominator as you will ! While 
Madame Landseer, desires to see a scientific establishment of 
the common-sense ‘Rights of Man' — spelled with very large 
letters, and grounded in the recognition that this form of Ecce 
Homo is, as the form of that son-of-God which in these last days 
— is able to walk through the midst of Life's fires, unhurt. 

“I would name it — ‘The Church Universal throughout the 
world' : which — right or wrong — I claim has inherent regard to 
the Principle that impelled the founders of this country to de- 
clare that they ‘hold it to be self-evident that man is born 


Who Builds ? 


291 


free: and has a right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness/ 

^^In the courage of his and her own convictions, then singly 
or in conclaves, let each take up his building-work! But, how- 
ever taken up each has to take it up from where the results of a 
previous-lif e-day y left it for his or her resumption. 

crisis is on the world. As Blake says — with inspiration 
that in 1804 seemed then like madness; — ^We see the finger of 
God go forth from within the wheels of Albion's Sons. Fix- 
ing their systems permanent by arithmetic-power!' ‘Giving 
a body to falsehood that it may be cast off forever with de- 
monstrative Science: piercing Apollyon with his bow. But 
God is within and without. He is even in the depths of Hell.' 
But what are these Golden-Builders doing?" continued 
Allierri still quoting from Albion's poet, William Blake. And 
Maurice, as if in answer to the question, ‘What are these 
Golden-Builders doing?' opened a letter that had been passed 
to him by Margery, and read — 

“Maurice: — 

“I have held my pen many minutes. Disuse has disabled 
my hand and tongue. Frantze Anueland, Alice's own brother, 
will read aloud their mother's words. What these words do 
not explain will be by others and myself further elucidated. 

I am your mother, Margery." 

When Maurice half-dazed concerning the sense of this con- 
densed statement had read it, and halting, looked about, then 
Frantze Anueland received from ‘Margery's hand a yellow’ 
leaved volume' and unclasping it read from script what began 
without date: — 

“I am a happy bride. My noble husband. I cannot think 
why he chose me! Yet he must have loved me; for I am his. 

“It may steady my understanding of such matters if I write 
out in my journal whatever bewilders me amid the shocks and 
confusion of my new life full of things into which I, ‘such a 
childish maid' have been thrust. That's what they say of me. 
I still shall keep with me my teacher; my good old Cure, — else 
all would seem too strange. 


292 


Who Builds ? 


Albert says I must not give back timidly before people. 
The Lady Alice is not a school-girl now, he says. I wish I 
were, or I wish I were different. Yet I was this way when he 
sought me, with no expression of preference from me, or in my 
deepest heart. We were going to read together. He knows 
much. He is a thinker, my good teacher says. 

October: — 

‘^They are all very gay here at Chavanage. So much com- 
pany, so gaily entertained. He says I am a droll little one to 
think of expenses, and that I show a thrift that more belongs 
to his German blood. But my father besought me to moderate 
expenses until all encumbrances should be removed from the 
estates. But now, the new changes in Parks; the making of 
the artificial lake? — O, it would be no sacrifice for me to live 
quietly and to learn to be truly useful to our people. No sacri- 
fice, but a joy to work thus with Albert. My father liked that. 

Zelzah Rhoensteine laughs at this. It does not seem silly to 
me. I rode to the meet today. Zelzah was there. She fol- 
lowed the hounds. Albert called me timid, and left me with 
old Lord Rathburn. Lamed- Ariosto was there; and the old 
West Indian, her father. Landseer and — others were about 
Zelzah and Lamed dashed up, and in a moment in the midst of 
the raillery, the laugh was turned on Zelzah, and then Lamed 
was off with Landseer on one side and Rathburn on the other, 
and Zelzah caught up Albert, and I was left with stuffy old 
Lord Cameron who wheezes dreadfully. 

^‘Zelzah has said such an ugly thing about, that Albert was 
her baby, and I need not think I was going to take him from 
her, just because we had been to the altar together for a few 
minutes. What a speech! Is she had — utterly bad, — or is it 
but, — Well, I — I was near crying when she took him away. 
He saw it and lifted his hat to me, as though he could not help 
it. I thought marriage was more than that! I think I reeled 
in my saddle. Then Albert was back at my side saying, — 
^Zelzah did not mean anything.’ And she stood laughing at 
me and petting me. I told him to go then, seeing he liked 
people who mean nothing when they talked. ^That’s me,’ 
said Zelzah. ‘But do you like me Albert? If you do, come.’ 
And she looked merrily at him, coaxing him ; and I told him to 
go, and he was angry and went ! 


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293 


am so miserable! I keep putting myself into the wrong 
and turning everything to her advantage. All of us do that. 
Lamed does. Zelzah is the only happy one among us. She 
is as happy as if she were a little child. Lamed will certainly 
make Zelzah do her mischief. Every woman in our set fears 
Zelzah. But none of them have reason. 

With her eyes growing long and narrow, said Zelzah to me 
today, — am wearying of the Creole. Watch me; see me 
make her punish herself!’ She calls Lamed the Creole, for they 
are of the Bermudas or Jamaica Island on the other side of the 
world. Some think Lamed the handsomer. All know her to 
be the wittiest; and she has a tongue that cuts into the heart. 
She will not flatter. Zelzah really loves so lovingly that her 
very look and voice seem flattery. She is as happy as a child. 
All men like her. No woman of our set does. Lamed hates 
her. They are half-sisters. 

^^Zelzah said to me with a caress, which once I should have 
liked, — ‘Lady Alice I really want nothing. I have more than 
I want of everything except woman friends. I wish you could 
like me a little.’ 

“But I cannot. I cannot. I don’t know why I feel so sick 
when I look at her! She says she is Albert’s old, old friend. 
And that I am so newly come into their lives that I do not un- 
derstand them. She wants me to be one with them. I won- 
der if this, which makes me so sick is the ^particular affection’ 
which my good Cure warns me against letting get too strong 
a hold. But I cannot help it. I? I? to be one with them? 
It is for Albert to be one with me and forsake all others! — 
Didn’t he vow it? Was there ever such a thing said to a wife? 
Yet, she looked like a child, sweet and friendly; Albert says 
she is. He wishes I liked her better. 

“December: — 

“ She was wonderful in her beauty last night. But, — but, she 
sickens my soul! I hate this buzz of jealousy; the blare of bare 
arms and shoulders; the blaze of jewels. Have all the men, 
the scholars my mother used to know left the world? Once 
^society’ indeed would have called such men as these — what? 
I will not write it nor think of them with their inordinate vul- 
garities ! The unheard of attitudes ; their impossible stable-boy 
mouths and atmosphere, mentally, yes and in the last particu- 
lars. 


294 


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Are these loud revels amid show and wasted wealth, any 
more worthy of us^ than is the drinking of our disorderly tenants 
at ale-houses? They are poor and vulgar; we are rich and 
vulgar, and the last is the worst. 0, my father! my father! 
Where is the wisdom which you taught me to teach and to 
hold as the priceless thing? 

^^For Lamed^s sake I last night told Albert of Lamed’s story. 
He called Landseer an infatuated fool! But it is not Landseer 
at all. It is Zelzah who follows him up. 

^Ht is two months since I have written in my journal. Lamed 
has gone to America. They all laugh at her and tell Zelzah 
that Lamed ran off with Landseer to get him safe away from 
her! Zelzah laughs at this and kindly excuses Lamed. If 
Lamed did so, it is but what half the women in her set would 
be glad to do. Albert says it is well enough all round, that 
they made this marriage; for the Landseer-estates are run out 
as Madame Landseer made a mesalliance in marrying a Light- 
Guardsman; and between Landseer and his grandfather’s prop- 
erty there are three deaths which must happen. Old Lady 
Worldboro, his mother’s mother, was the first wife, and the 
second wife has widened the breach between Landseer’s mother 
and grandfather. 

^^I miss Archibald Landseer more than I would any one else! 
Poor little Amy Montgarland has broken off with Sturtevant. 
Lamed told Zelzah she was just killing Amy, and now, it has 
killed her. 

wish Albert would go to America. Zelzah was on the con- 
tinent with him when I was a ^chit’ at school, she says. She 
calls him ^her handsome boy.’ He says these are her ^motherly 
old ways.’ She pets him, and he pets me, he says. When he 
tells me these things I feel numb and dumb. Then he tells me 
I am depressing. 

Albert says we can well afford our way of living. He asked 
me today if I am penurious? Zelzah calls me that. The 
house is filled with people she fancies. Jerome thinks I am 
right in trying to keep my promise to my father. Zelzah keeps 
before my mind that it was when ^Oaklands’ and Hhe mines’ 
had just come to me that Albert found me. She often tells 
him that he must yield to wealth. Yet, why did he marr}^ 


Wlio Builds ? 


295 


me, when he seems to need me so little? Zelzah tells him she 
loves tobacco smoke and that he can smoke in her presence — 
she invites him to do so. It poisons me, so he is with her al- 
ways when he smokes, and leaves me of course. Zelzah and 
tobacco and billiards leave me much alone. Yet he married 
me — Why ? 

‘^He came up from the billiard room today Jiot and excited. 
He said he hated great Amazons, and that he had a sweet wife 
who would never be round teaching men how to play billiards. 

‘^He looked round my rooms; my ‘inmost reflected^ he called 
them. He was tender, and tried to draw me to my little altar. 
He leaned his head on it. I longed to touch it — but Zelzah^s 
hand was once there — and — he let it stay there. Presently 
he reached out and drew me passionately to his knee, and held 
me back, looking into my eyes as he said — 

“‘Alice my wife! Does she ever pray for me at this altar?' 
but between my eyes and him was Zelzah, and the dumb spirit 
came upon me. Then the thought of my new secret blessed 
my parched soul, and I whispered, — ‘Yes, for you, and for 
our babe Albert.' 

“Then the fountain was unsealed, and we had hours of con- 
versation such as we had never known. I told him the wise 
things my learned mother had taught me, and that he must, 
must take me away from my sickening dread of Zelzah, for the 
sake of one dearer to me than life or pride. He must relieve 
me utterly from this object of bitter disgust. I would not 
reason about it, I only demanded to be freed from the sight of 
her; and to be filled with the sight of him, for my babe's sake. 

“‘Ah, you love the babe better than the husband!' cried Al- 
bert. ‘You fear the influence on the babe! You seek to save 
the 6a6e,' he said strangely. And I answered with passion, 
that ‘I would save the new life from the fever in my blood.' 
Then I broke forth, calling Zelzah false and treacherous, caring 
nothing that he thus learned my hate. Caring nothing but 
to throw out of my mind, the brooding poison which should not 
turn itself in on the forming soul under my heart. And Albert 
was carried out of himself. 

“And here is my old journal again. Not a word have I 
written in it of the dolce jar niente existence I have here led 


296 


Who Builds ? 


under the Italian skies: — not a word on paper; but, in the being 
of my large-eyed dreamy boy I have recorded all these condi- 
tions. For Albert, like the wise Greeks who graced the mother^s 
room with models of perfect strength and beauty, has all these 
months enwrapped my senses in sights and sounds of all things 
fair! I have written to Lamed in America. I want her to 
know that I am a happy wife, and, my babe, my husband’s 
image. 

^^May: — 

“I look at my journal and see the boast there last penned. 
Albert is sick and tired of ‘quiet.’ He loves noise, dash and 
people! 

“ I must run about with this noisy rabble, or separate myself 
unto myself and child. He thinks I absorb myself too utterly 
in the child’s opening faculties. I will not leave the child for 
those who care nothing for me, and to whom I have not the 
responsibility which inheres in having called a being into em- 
bodiment. 

“ I am with my child. If he wants to find me he will find 
me there. And is not my child his? 

“ He says he has lost a wife in gaining a son! 

“ Zelzah is married to Jerome. Margaret has made her 
debut. I loathe society. If there is any wife who is not un- 
happy, it is the one who forgets her husband; and he is therefore 
unhappy about her. 

“ Will Albert believe it now? I heard Margaret tell him what 
all were saying of Zelzah. And I heard his voice, (first in tones 
of passionate entreaty; then outraged and piteous) — send Mar- 
garet to Zelzah to talk to her. She said she hoped nothing 
from Zelzah. 

Years have passed since I opened my childish journal. We 
are here in Virginia in the United States of America. These 
years have brought me the quiet which comes with passions 
subdued. Have I ever had ‘passions,’ as that word is inter- 
preted? 

“ I do not know! But I do know I have never been a satis- 
factory companion to those who love Love, and who yearn 


Who Builds ? 


297 


for its demonstrations! I love my child, I love children, all 
children. And I love, — 0, I love the Truth-of-Things, let the 
cost of getting at it be what it may ! And I love, I love the 
Wisdom of God, which is unto the salvation of all, who know- 
ing it, understand, embrace and receive its winsome Power. 

Here in the solitude, close to nature^s heart, I have read the 
sketchy words written in this book while I was living, driven 
onward by a power, which impelled me to conserve all heaven^s 
forces for the oncoming life; so that to us a child should be 
born, and a son be given; who should be Wonderful, counsellor, 
a prince of peace’; one ‘on whose shoulders should rest the 
government,’ — nay, the releasement-of the individual faculties 
of those over whom he should thus bear light but right rule. 

“ Margaret could not save Albert from Zelzah, — she said, if his 
wife would not! Are then, these men children? Are then 
wives unpleasant jailers? 

“ She says I pushed him from me! I did not push, and — I do 
not know that Zelzah pulled. There was that in him that hun- 
gered for the warmth of emotional kindness and tenderness 
free from criticism and from that moral stress and strain which, 
is a rebuke to un-moral lassitude. 

“ Is it then that woman must either ignore herself as a spirit- 
ualized-maternity? or, fall away from filling the husband’s 
heart? It might seem so, but for the fact that when a woman 
becomes the mother of her husband’s child, that husband then 
surely has become a father of his wife’s child and should rise 
to the level there at the side of the mother. If he will not, the 
mother is ‘mother’ still and may go no more down forever 
from that, her mount of transfiguration. When this system 
of dual-marital-parentity is exalted, women will be encouraged 
to be mothers indeed, and a new race will be born. Then 
jealousies will flee before the coming of the better status of 
home. But if man cannot rise to that level, then woman must 
conclude that she is a father-mother being; and she must as- 
sume a Divine-maternity in order to bring forth and rear men 
capacitated to reach their true estate. 

“Jerome is here. A forsaken husband; and I am here, a 
childless mother and a forsaken wife. If she hated me for my 
silent scorn of her, she has repaid me well. She let my husband 
steal my babe that they ‘ might warm him into life before I 


298 


Who Builds ? 


should freeze him to death with theories’ she said, leaving 
that for a message on her card. Think of the deed. 

Yet, in the honesty of my soul, I now can tell myself I may 
have been ^bloodlessly hard’ as she says. Am I unkind? I 
do loathe lawless passion. I am enraged to a white heat 
of silent wrath at seeing a soul dissolve itself in sensuality, 
when the art of transmuting all that, into Spirit-power, is so 
simple, so natural, and so full of bliss which fades not away. 

‘‘ At least it is so to me. Are others different? Do vocations 
differ? Did I miss mine? Then let others understand them- 
selves better in youth and do more wisely. Life is eternal. I 
shall be born again. I have not missed my vocation, for it was 
ordained that my Frantze should be launched into this world 
of causes and effects. He may right up my mistake, if mistake 
it were! 

cannot explain it; but I know in my soul I would rather 
he here alone, dying, widowed, childless and filled with the vis- 
ions which cool, chaste spirits bring, than to be like those 
others, or to be deluged with their presence. I have no anger. 
Is it that I have, by tendency naturally chosen this part, and 
brought these things on myself? Then if so, are the other 
actors to blame? Is it that to be at-one-mind with The Christ 
is nature for me, as the full occupation with many things-and- 
much-public-service-and-salutation is the nature of Zelzah? 
I pushed her away. I did wrong. She meant me no wrong 
and her love for my husband as it was in its first simplicity 
would have done neither him nor me, nor my boy any harm: 
but only good continually, if I could have trusted her and 
loved her or had even let her love me. Was I jealous? I do 
not know. Was there not a level at which I could and should 
have lived, not fearing lest she should take something of 
(my property in my husband) away from me? 

“Who and what do we love in loving? Is it bones, flesh 
and sinew? Is it voice, touch and external semblance? No; 
I now know I do not so love. It is the life of Omniscient life 
which bounds in all being, — that it is, — that we, at least I love. 
I do not own it, it owns me. I am but part of it, with others 
who are also a part. Then how should jealousy have arisen 
in me, when I am a part of the whole, loving a part of the whole, 


Who Builds ? 


299 


— seeing that the lovers and the beloved are all part and parcel 
in that whole Omnipresent Omniscience ? Her love was inno- 
cent, kind at first. It was her nature to love all, giving freely, 
and never (as I now believe) wanting anything more than the 
freedom to love! Not so much as caring whether she was 
loved in return, or ever touched hand or exchanged caress with 
loved ones, whether they were the sisters or the brothers of 
humanity. I — 

There was a long hiatus in the journal, and the hand that 
resumed the pen was feeble. It began to write, then stopped; 
then renewed the effort. So that Frantze looking down the 
scrawled page could only read aloud again at the words, — 
''And now, so many years — Albert — came back to me here. 
Margaret too — here. Did I receive Albert ? Indeed I did. I 
had only lived on, waiting to tell him that my love was as quiet 
as the blue depth above our heads, and stronger than death, 
and untouched by any sense of shame or unforgiveness, — when 
a year had passed and he died. Yet, he lived to see my baby 
Alice. My daughter who must be . . . 

"Margaret would not believe that Zelzah was dead. Nor did 
she believe that after Zelzah^s death, when Albert thought he 
himself was dying, he had sent my boy somewhere by an 
humble brother-mason hoping to find the Landseers. 

" Albert was so broken — no connected story. There had been 
great suffering and trouble. And Margaret, dumb, dreadful 
Margaret believed nothing that he said till, in dying, he told 
us where she was buried. Margaret scorned my . . . and 
reconciliation, as she called it! Reconciliation? It is not indi- 
viduals who are at swords’ points; it is not men and women 
who are torturing each other, generation after generation. It 
is stupid teaching and legalized false adjustments (?) of the 
contrarieties which inhere in the conditions of the younger and 
older souls, called men and women. It is these false teachings 
and ill adjustments which keep men and the race at sword’s 
points. 

" Why could I not have known and asserted these truths so 
fully realized by me, in earlier life? Did not my husband say 
to me — 'Lady Alice is not a schoolgirl! She must not give 
back before the crudities of society about us!’ What was 


300 


Who Builds ? 


that, but man’s inborn longing and expectancy that his wife 
should have and hold her place as Queen of Home? What — 
but an expression of his wish that she should lead the way and 
help society to achieve the will-of Wisdom? 

“I am dying and I know it. And I am glad. The strain of 
right thinking in the midst of conditions of untoward-ruling- 
religious-ideas puts wear and tear on spirits eager for disem- 
bodiment. 

I have done for Konnyngscrown all sisterly what I could : to 
make up for what he has lost: if ‘lost’ anything ever is. He 
has well cared for our estates, everything has prospered. Such 
as I have I give thee Oh! World! To it I leave my wealth 
which is in my children, whose qualities should make them 
‘Living Stones’ in the on-coming social stmcture. 

“Alice has been pre-natally taught that she is responsible 
for what she permits as well as for what she does. She must 
find her true vocation. It may — ” 


Who Builds ? 


301 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

‘There is a trinall kinde of seeming good religion! Yet I find but one 
to be embraced, which must be drawn from Papist, Protestant or Puri- 
tana / — Timers Whistler y E. E. T. S., p. 1. 

‘By thy triple-shape as thou art seen 

‘In heaven, earth, hell: and everywhere a Queen, 

‘Grant this my fii*st desire/ 

F RANTZE clasped the book and laid it down. Geraldine^s 
face was colorless, but not with the angry horror of the 
time when, rising from her fever, she had found Frantze ap- 
parently removed from her life and, her plans for uplifting 
them all, set at naught. 

The six years which had passed since that crisis had brought 
changes to her, greater than would have been possible had not 
each season of each year equalled a twelve-month of Energized 
Intelligence filled with memories of much that had gone before 
and intermixed with foregleams of that which was to come. 

This whelming view of the past and forecast of the future 
ever since her twelfth-birthday had held her to the business of 
resisting interference lest by succumbing to it she should fail 
of adjusting both her present self and the self-which-back-his- 
tory-had-made, to the needs of her own future and of the future 
epoch. 

This method of calculating moral-values was to her no harder 
than is an ordinary arithmetical-problem to children who are 
carefully trained in that line, to the exclusion of over-critical 
reckonings relative to other and more permanent values: in- 
cluding, as such reckonings must, the ever-enlarging matters 
of personal adjustment to past, present and future Man-build- 
ing. 

The result was, according to her computation there had 
thus been added to Geraldine^s age twenty-four years of 
time-value, since her twelfth-birth-day. Giving her to feel now 


302 


Who Builds ? 


to be, in the prime of powers, matured amid well-worked-out 
experiences. 

She glanced at the picture of her whose doings had been so 
fully discussed by Lady Alice. 

In Geraldine’s opinion the half had not been told. 

She asked herself, ^‘Was Zelzah now in the realm of which 
William Blake has said, 

^In Heaven the only art of living 
*Is forgetting and forgiving 
‘For the female.^'’ 

The eyes that were glancing back over the shoulder had not 
the look ordinarily portrayed in a penitent’s picture. The 
piquant and yet intensely serious gaze which was sent to the 
onlooker’s soul seemed to be demanding a corrective for the 
dangers thrust on woman by man and on the race by woman, 
fetching to Geraldine’s mind the further words of Albion’s 
poet : — 

“But if you on earth forgive, 

You shall not find where to live.’^ 

Geraldine felt she inherently had understood the kind of 
troubles which befall a nature like Zelzah’s: a nature that 
tends to love all, whether sisters or brothers of humanity, for- 
giving and forgetting even the rankest injustice. 

Then too Geraldine felt certain that, in their family there was 
a Wealth of accumulated experience. And the question was, 
could they — and would they — use that Wealth? So far as re- 
lated that evening, the matter at stake was to be dealt with, 
not in crude 1)ulk. For these experiences, like pounds and 
pecks of drugs and herbs had — by trituration, succussion and 
dilution been developed into that ^spirit-likeness which is hid- 
den in the inmost of all curative-verities.’ 

Geraldine felt sure Zelzah had had plenty of that treatment 
of which scripture says ^‘Though you bray a fool in a mortar 
with a pestle, yet will his foolishness not depart from him.” 
She had keen sympathy with things brayed in a mortar; for 
her interest in the philosophy of Hahnemann and his prede- 
cessors (Paracelsus and Pythagoras) as viewed in the light of 
Konnyngscrown’s laboratorialized experiments had given her 


Who Builds? 


303 


to believe that in this age, few women would need any more 
of that “braying^': if but man's new tendency to make a mys- 
tical study of woman's powers and possibilities, were brought 
to a right climax. She believed Zelzah had understood the 
divinitized possibilities of the race; and in her way had mag- 
nified her office as ^friend of man' even though the times and 
temperaments of men about her had not encouraged the dis- 
cussion of matters which,, also, her self-forgetting kindliness, 
was opposed to discussing. As a consequence, Geraldine be- 
lieved Zelzah had taken the treatment, ordinarily received by 
those who forget that the facts which experience teaches, are 
taught and re-taught until students are brought to understand 
that, the new application of old facts to existing cases, should 
keep Intelligence from repeating the old blunders of old igno- 
rance. 

Geraldine knew that Lamed had faith in Hahnemann's 
statement, that ^neither man's diseases nor woes are curable 
by any science founded on organopathy ' : because ‘no consid- 
eration of the organs of the body' of the individual nor of the 
organized-body-politic, will throw light on the character of 
human or social disorder. Because ‘the needed light must 
come from the spirit-cause, which is back of disorder.' 

She had reason to know that, as Hahnemann says, ‘Occult, 
but natural powers form a chain of connection between this 
world and that beyond the tomb': and that the conscious 
possessor and user of these powers is ‘placed on the last limits 
of that dynamism on which standing, she can yet keep her 
hold on mortal existence, while casting a scrutiny into the un- 
seen world.' 

Geraldine believed, (as did Lamed) that, ‘alt lacking Ease 
and Order will be supplied when humanity knows how to use 
those real medicinal powers, which are etres (beings) that 
may be constructed at will.' 

According to the law ‘Know thyself,' Geraldine had studied 
the ‘totality of her own symptoms'; and had had conclusive 
reason for believing that ‘neither mental nor physical disease 
is caused by material substance'; but always by a ‘dynamic- 
derangement of health that exists' — not because morbific 
matter has been thrust into the system, but — ‘because the 
living principle has been thrust out.' 


304 


Who Builds? 


She realized this resume of philosophies concerning the occult 
power back of physical and spiritual health or disease had come 
partially to her as a part of her relation to Zelzah^s past 
existence. For she believed that, up to the time of leaving 
Jerome, Zelzah had lived according to the strictest code of that 
Epoch and country. But questioned after that — what?^' 
And losing foothold in a quagmire, unknown to her imagina- 
tion, she chiefly perceived, that Zelzah was not a self-assertive 
woman: neither was she of the artificial sort that ^live but to 
please.^ 

The case with her had been, that, in the mere act of living 
she had pleased, a merveille, and had reigned in the hearts of 
men — not becase she had desired to be crowned Queen of 
hearts, but because, being Queen of hearts they had so crowned 
her. Geraldine believed Zelzah to be an unself-seeking woman; 
and a companionable. A woman with w’hom men had no fault 
to find: though they found fault with themselves each and 
many that not one of them ever had won a distinguishing favor 
from her till Jerome, for a month had legally called her his wife. 
Then — Heaven knew why, — but perhaps, she forsook the vio- 
lence of that love for the friendlike-loverliness of one whom 
she could trust for rational treatment. 

That no man had blamed her, not even Jerome, Geraldine 
sensed: though likely, in the end, they all settled it in their 
minds, that she did not take Life seriously. Because all that 
they perceived was, what they could see; and all they could 
see was, sombre, waiting eyes looking out to the farthest 
social horizon, and beholding few men, who realized the falsity 
of woman’s position ; or perceived its inadequacy to humanity’s 
great case. They but saw Zelzah moving on acquiescingly, 
willessly and as blamelessly as a child, seemingly puzzled, but 
not over concerned in the contradictory talk that, in one breath 
aimlessly condemned and condoned acts which were the same; 
circumstantially considered and in all human results, the same! 
Then why did the women of her set fear and flout her? 
Even the saintly Lady Alice feared and could not love 
her. Was there possibly some upseething vapor from a profli- 
gate-pas^-incarnation, which, in the midst of present interior 
and external blamelessness made her seem more wise and 
weary than ignorant-innocence would be? 


Who Builds ? 


305 


Blameless, Geraldine felt sure, Zelzah was until, frightened 
at the furious upheaval of Jerome^s nature, she had left him 
as she had done. She believed there was some pitiable cause 
for that act which had put Zelzah in the wrong. Geraldine 
herself had seen Konnyngscrown in a state bordering on in- 
sanity when he became deluged with his misconceptions of 
woman’s nature, tendencies and prerogatives. 

“Poor Poor Zelzah!” thought Geraldine, realizing with the 
mental ejaculation, how exactly her family had tended to call 
her, ‘poor.’ But in what, were either of them poor? Was it 
in love? or in intelligence? or was it because of something in 
them that marked them as prey for that very poor kind of 
man, who goes through the world in the crazy belief that he has 
an inherent right to deal with woman in an impoverishing way? 

To Geraldine, Zelzah’s pictured-hand, indubitably held up 
the fruit, supposed to typify ‘the knowledge of good and evil’: 
possibly challenging those who came after her, to follow up 
the problem which, living, she had ceaselessly pondered and 
which, dead, she seemed picturesquely thus to have formu- 
lated in the question: “What is to be done with the fruit of the 
Knowledge which previous incarnations have brought to hand?” 
“How shall this epoch upbuildingly-utilize The Results of the 
old-fashioned mutual-mental-torture popularly called ‘love 
between the sexes’?” 

At this moment, she who had been known as Margaret, 
put in Maurice’s hand a paper which she bade him read aloud 
for her. And he read: 

“Lady Alice wrote out of her thought-life. She seemed 
never to remember me — Margaret — after we had gotten to 
America and had gone through our weird discoveries here. 
She considered me the servant that I seemed to be; and called 
my boy Maurice her child.” 

Maurice wiped his brow, for his quickened brain-action had 
shot out there drops of concussionary amaze. 

As one accustomed to hold self steady whatever occurred, 
after a dazed moment, he read on: “For years I was called 
mad. If to know no law but one’s own will and if, to stick 
at nothing in gaining one’s own end, is madness I may have 
been mad. 


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After Lamed and I^andseer had gone to America and another 
event had followed, I forced us all to go there also, to look for 
Zelzah. I did not choose to remain where she had disgraced 
us. 

I had our names entered at hotels as ‘ Captain Rawdon, lady, 
child, and lady^s maid.^ I was frenzied by opposition, and out 
of regard to conditions, my husband let me proceed. 

I was wild with disgrace and a deeper wound. I had believed 
that the Rhoensteines had nothing in common with the rest of 
the world, save the last necessity, — death. If a Rhoensteine 
had stolen coroneted plate from a hostess it would have been 
to my mind, less than the swinish degradation that, feasting 
unbidden at Lady Aliceas board, had stolen her lifers Jewels. 

Was that what Rhoensteine pride found it possible to do? 
Then I would none of it. And in scorn of our pretensions and 
mad at our shame, I gave myself and my boy Maurice to her 
and hers forever; and upon my husband I levied a tax for name 
and care, my all to her who, by my sister, had been defrauded 
of her all. 

do not believe Lady Alice ever particularly recognized 
what I did for her. She took what came to hand ; caring mean- 
while for ‘ little Maurice,’ and wrote and dreamed over possible 
humanity while planning a new civilization with Jerome, 
Zelzah’s husband — who as fully as myself, had given himself 
to her. 

^^But the hand that dashed Lady Alice’s cup, had struck mine 
also from my lips. For soon after I had entered society I was 
affianced to a man whom I delighted to honor. 

^^As the companionship of the Rhoensteine and Albert An- 
ueland became marked, wagers were laid as to the result. I 
heard Estlegate wager that an elopement would ensue. I 
heard a voice I knew well, reply, — ‘Too fast Lord James. You 
are animadverting on a Rhoensteine.’ 

“‘Truly, and because the conduct of a Rhoensteine calls for 
animadversion.’ 

“ ‘ To show, how sure I am of your mistake I will wager against 
you, my dearest hope in life.’ 

“‘You risk too much, I will not take your wager.’ 

“‘Nay! For should one Rhoensteine fulfill your fears the 
name of another could never be united with that of Wellesly 
whose men are brave and whose women are pure.’ 


Who Builds ? 


307 


Wild with passion, I found him and told him, whatever the 
result of the wager, one Rhoensteine would never brook the 
names or voices of those who made it. He besought me in 
vain. I told him though the discretion of one Rhoensteine 
seemed doubtful, he would learn their firmness was inflexible. 

Soon afterwards I found myself united to Jerome’s Brother, 
Maurice Konnyngscrown. And after that — I cannot manage 
dates — we found the house here in Virginia; and we made part 
of it beautiful for Lady Alice, whose piteous, child-like faith — 
and far-reaching philosophy of the adi^aZ-immortality of Spirit 
— laid us under tribute to bring healing to her wounds. Were 
they deeper than mine? 

‘‘Well! It was here we found the grave, and beside it. Lady 
Alice vowed herself to reclusion while she sought ‘Understand- 
ing.’ And the devout recluse nature of Pere Allierri (as I in 
my clouded mind called my own Maurice) drank in her thoughts, 
her expressions, as he, with Jerome, ministered to her — what 
little attention there was by her needed — while they lived, like 
St. John before the GreatWhite Throne, looking from thence out 
on the sea of human strife, seeking the cause and cure of that 
strife. 

“She spent her last days in studying with — Ah! I cannot 
write it; nor think on the unnamable quality of a woman’s- 
soul which could forgive such unforgivable acts or look upon 
a traitor husband. Let rest! She spent her last years here 
peacefully y studying (as though she had no heart) the sym- 
bolism of all religions — and of nature’s analogy to all spiritual 
things. She was a well, though a fragile woman- who at last 
died, simply because she would no longer live. I live because 
I will not die. 

“The Shadow-girl, — the incarnate image of the Rhoensteine, 
did not kill me when she felled me to the floor. Rather, that 
blow aroused reason from the lethargy of bitterness. My at- 
tempt to kill her whom I thought was Zelzah was my first and 
only violent act. When I recovered from that blow, the long 
sealed fountains opened; and I wept as I had never wept: and 
saw in the so-called Pere Allierri the tender husband of my 
long darkened life, Maurice Konnyngscrown, the father of my 
son and the brother of Jerome; both of them, men, who by in- 


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heritance and nature, are so wisely devout as to find now, their 
only safety in a recluse, abstemious, rectitude! 

^^You, young Maurice are my son! My yearning over you 
now, you cannot understand. I pay the penalty of the aliena- 
tion from those we love, which must be paid when passion, 
too long overrides reason. The Ariostos and Konnyngscrowns 
too many of them have been ' religieuse ^ too long recklessly 
now to break the record of the life peculiar to ‘ Devotees ' whose 
spiritual powers hold them more closely united with the doings 
of the unseen world, than with the Visible crudities of effects: 
known as Experimental Life here. 

I am, 

' ^Margaret Ariosto-Rhoensteine-Konnyngscrown.^' 

In a tumult of emotions Maurice threw himself at his mother^s 
side, burying his face in her gown. Alice was not his sister 
and the fair worshipped saint Lady Alice was not his mother; 
and this scarcely human-seeming woman and the solemn Pere 
Allierri alias Maurice Konnyngscrown were his closest kin! ! ! 

Lamed- Ariosto-Landseer,” cried Geraldine irrepressibly, 
^^am I a nameless child of the Rhoensteine? Answer this 
now!’' 

* Each man is in his Spectre’s power 
Until the arrival of that hour 
When his HUmanity shall 'awake’ 

And ‘shall’ cast his Spectre in the ‘ lake,’ ” 

said Mrs. Landseer, arising and reading in this interpolated 
manner, the quotation which was inscribed under the Rabbi’s 
picture: and accenting, as she read it, that syllable ^hu^:on the 
development of which element, (according to her idea of the 
evolution of the race) so much is dependent. 

She read with the gentleness of a prophet, whose prophecies 
are nearing fulfillment. 

Then taking Geraldine’s hand she said, — ^^Now, if she whom 
I hold by the hand is not my daughter in the same sense that 
Ishtar is, then, if she is the child of the Rhoensteine, she is my 
niece. But whether she is my niece or my daughter, she is my 
sister; as are all women in the universe, in the body or out. 

^‘We who believe in the actual immortality of the soul and 


Who Builds ? 


309 


who believe we are all children of that Eloihim in whom we live, 
move, and have being, should, (in these great days when the 
seen and the unseen worlds mingle and commingle,) rid our- 
selves of all those jealousies and strifes that have their rise in 
our love of ourselves more than of our neighbor! In no other 
way can we rid ourselves of tormenting ^ spectres M But in 
order to rid ourselves of these {the spectres of our undeveloped 
selves) we have but to remember the fact that particular- 
affections for persons (rather than affection for the one funda- 
mental-principle of life) is the trap which catches the unwary. 
A trap that will not lie in the path of the more intellectualized 
children of an on-coming intellectualized-motherhood, who will 
help fashion the Minds of the Universal Brotherhood! 

^^My story has been well enough out-lined by the few who 
have written and spoken already except for one point, which 
is nothing to tell; though it was much to live through when 
the heart was on fire with those ignorant fears from all of which, 
a self-sovereign motherhood will save the race. 

‘‘It has appeared to be hard on the race that the resistless 
floods of life should be turned in on us when we have been 
supposed to know nothing of ourselves, our desires or of the 
potential consequences of our acts. And according to the or- 
dinary view, it is natural to ask why any one should be held 
responsible in maturity for the deeds of babyhood? Until 
rather recently I lived all a^quiver, at the injustice of these 
conditions! But I know now that we have no ‘baby-days^ in 
the common sense of the term. For I know (or I think I know) 
beyond a peradventure that we are born old; having a back- 
history with which each has to deal as best each may from the 
drawing of the first breaths. 

“My daughters, Frantze and others, by their ‘patient con- 
tinuance in well doing, ^ have helped me to understand how 
wise I was in doing duty so well, through the years when I 
simply held on to duty, understanding only that others would 
suffer if I did not hold on to duty! And for the sake of others, 
I held on. 

“Of course I cannot prove to yoit that I was not jealous, 
(that is the raw word commonly used) of the Rhoensteine, as 
she, with dire notoriety, became called. There was much more 
than that in it all. But I shall waste no time in analyzing 


310 


Who Builds ? 


that matter. All that Lady Alice said in her wise cogitations 
will stand good scrutiny; and I shall not try to better her phi- 
losophy of the subject. I did try to put the sea between 
the Rhoensteine and myself! But it was not because Archibald 
loved her. She was my half-sister, and like Margaret I was 
enraged at conditions every way. And when I thought she 
was out of his mind it is true, I found her picture among his 
treasures. 

It is also true that my first child, a boy, looked like her; for 
when Archibald was away from me, I seemed to eat, drink and 
sleep with her on my mind. 

The first boy died at birth. I had faith in her power to 
reach Archibald still. I cannot tell what there was about the 
woman. She was so utterly artless that she seemed artful. 

say again, my first baby was an idiot and so was my 
second boy, and both well dead! The rough belittling town 
that we lived in, furnished nothing of mental stimulus; and 
I had to endure a great deal of drudgery to say the least. 

^^The Rhoensteines were a violent family. But my heart 
ached for Zelzah and my pride smarted under what seemed to 
me, her preposterous conduct. I say again, I ate, drank and 
slept with her tremendous power holding on to me, hypnotizing 
me, if such a thing can be for she loved me till (and here comes 
the mystery) — it seemed to me that she was bound to take 
possession of me and turn me out of my own body and out 
of self-possession! I was ill with the stress and strain of the 
presence of her personality and of her will upon mine. 

Suddenly I knew that she was dying or dead. I was then 
expecting the coming of my third child. It was late evening. 
Archibald was away on a long absence. Tama was out of the 
room and Zelzah, (my beloved Zelzah, for that she was to 
me) — suddenly stood by my side as visibly as ever any body 
stood. And (believe it who will) bowing over me and the 
coming child she breathed into its nostrils the breath of her 
tremendous life. I heard it like the sound of the rushing of 
tongues of ice-filled air. And I saw that she, at the moment 
was an expectant-Mother. And I saw that by urgency of 
desire, she called back into herself Life: and that that Life 
left one little body; and having infilled Zelzah, was by her 
poured out into the nostrils of one of the babes. Which One? 


Who Builds? 


311 


And — believe it who can — one of them sent forth a cry that 
rang through the house: no infantas wail, but a voice like Zel- 
zah^s own contralto tone. 

‘^Then as plainly as ever mortal uttered words this woman 
said, 

^'‘Take back in this babe, me-and-my-habe-commingled-re- 
muneratively. For she shall fetch back to you all that of which 
social-misunderstandings-of-my-powers caused you and our 
family to be robbed. 

We two, me and my child, renewed-at-once and triuned- 
with-your-babe (whose life I thus save) by the Grace of Heaven 
shall be my gift to you! Never doubt this ^Hriuning^M But 
know that, but for my bringing you what I now leave with 
you, this time you would have only birthed (as twice before) 
another frenzy-swamped idiot! For your misery attracts to 
your sphere, ill-treated-Egos, whose enslaved aspirations in 
their last incarnations, were turned in on their tear-deluged, 
hydrocephalous brains! Dreamers of Possibilities which the 
crudities of their time turned into impossibilities for their 
then woman-degrading Epoch !^ 

“Then I seemed to be carried to a distant place where I saw 
a room into which I this day have looked in this House. And 
on a bed there, I saw the body of a woman who had died in 
giving birth to a wizened doll-sized-mite ! 

“Believe it who can. I saw it all. And I have verified the 
fact. For since coming here, at my request Zelzah^s grave 
has been opened, and laid away in the embalming coffin, dressed 
in with Zelzah^s white cerements, is the long-sought-for, and 
now-discovered child. 

A shudder swept through Jerome. A memory of the morn- 
ing on the roadside among the denizens of the grass-world, 
came, bringing back the words: ^Thus with Man. But how 
with the Midget-mite ? Had an arrest in the learning of knowl- 
edge been called to it by the expulsion of midget consciousness 
from Midget-form? Or, on the reverse, when the breath of 
man engulfed it, did the Midget learn from the engulfing 
power, something which sent it on its way to become — time 
given — as mighty as its engulfer?’ 

He bowed his head, wondering whether that morning^s rev- 
erie had been sent to prepare him for this night’s revelation 


312 


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concerning his share in the fate which his mistreatment had 
caused this Mother to bring on that Mite, when — 

— it was expelled from its tenement^’ (went on Lamed’s 
voice ‘‘by the soul-suction with which the Mother held it to her 
purpose, that, (saved from shame) it thus should be absorbed 
into union with her work of making — She who should come, — 
The strain was torturing. Was it a mad-woman speaking? 
“ — a Spirit-like dynamism who at times has frightened us all, 
with its infibred ability to do (and its fear of not doing) Right? 

“When I had returned from my sight of distant things, my 
attendants considered I had but swooned. And mean time 
they had done what was to be done; and beside me, dressed 
and awake, with Zelzah^s eyes beholding me, was the trium- 
phant possessor of a vigorous body which, in Tamars words, 
‘had come up like as nobody ever saw a baby do in an hour!' 

“And the voice? It was no Infant's wail but an imperative 
cry for food and attention. It rang forth out of that Cupid- 
bow of a mouth which Zelzah alone, of all the thin-lipped- 
Rhoensteines, possessed. 

“When I revived and told Tama what had happened she was 
able to believe it. And since then, Althea, the Mother of that 
Robert Rabbinical" (said she looking from that weirdest of 
pictures to the living man) — “Althea, well believed what had 
happened. 

“But Landseer, when he heard it, would none of it: claiming 
it was hysteria: and that all manner of queer things came to 
women in some cases. And with this, he then thought he had 
dispatched all mysteries on earth. Yet Archibald became very 
proud of Geraldine: taking it very hard, however that I ‘had 
chosen to give him two hydrocephalous-brained boys ; and that 
then, THIS splendid fellow should but be a girl!"' 

Then turning from the picture to Tama and the family (whom 
she said could now better understand scenes which had had 
such bearing on the general revelation of ‘secret things' now 
being made known to those who are accoutred with that Good 
Judgment which replaces the results of Passion with new and 
true Creative-Action) she said, 

“The spectre of my life was more and other than jealousy of 
my half-sister. No matter of that personal-sort was identi- 
fied with the inexpressible fierceness whose fangs were in the 
Ariost 0-Heart. 


Who Builds ? 


313 


*^No! The women of our family would have rectified the 
Ariosto-blood if all our men could have seen that we were 
jealous FOR them not of them! And that we drew them to 
us and our sacred ideals not for aught that we needed; but 
to save them from dissipating their divine heritage. Thus 
Zelzah^s love was of that self-forgetting sort ! This I discovered, 
when she took possession of me and infilled me with her most 
enlivening tenderness/^ 

(Jerome groaned, bowing himself together.) 

^‘She invigorated me with the traditions of those who — in 
very-fact — look for the coming of beings-divine : born of Spirit, 
in Truth — and not figuratively-speaking. 

^‘She enlightened me: contributing that toward the child 
which, I, unaided could not then have transferred. 

^This sweetness and largeness of purpose again enveloped me, 
when — later in gladness, I welcomed Ishtar^s coming, eight 
months after Archibald, for the next time, had left me at home 
alone, with my children and Tama.’^ 

Straightening herself, Mrs. Landseer said with melodious 
tenderness: believe Zelzah told me that, which I am said, 

to have imagined. And I believe that the Mite and she both 
left their bodies, because their physical force was withdrawn 
in the mutual-determination to redress the wrongs that Zelzah 
seemed to have caused in the family^s interwoven membership 
(as well as for other reasons). Wrongs — and I say it no matter 
what wrath I bring down on my head — which were less ‘wrongs’ 
than they were the stumbling upsteps taken on the rough road 
of mountain climbers — ” 

“ — as they stagger forward, assisting at the evolution of 
the race,” said Ishtar, filling in her exhausted Mother’s words: 
and adding — “And in this work so dear to Humanity-builders, 
I believe Zelzah is potentially present. And a’near, that 
‘little one,’ whose cup shall yet be overflowed with the joyous 
River of Life, here on Earth, as she comes again.” 

“So be it,” said Frantze! 

“Zelzahrine, my wife, marry me again,” cried Jerome in deep 
fervor, overwhelmed by some presence. “Have I not earned 
it?” 

Geraldine fell back a step, dazedly looking at Zelzah’s picture, 
studying the questioning eyes which, more than ever, reminded 


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her that there had been passed on to her for settlement, the 
prime problem of this climaxing cycle. Then, with rebutting 
earnestness she said, — 

“Jerome, that is not the use you have to make of your past 
experiences ! Listen ! When I besought you to explain every- 
thing to me and let me help you, and, at twelve years of age, 
when I told you I had advantages which you needed, — You — in- 
stead of paying attention to my ability to clear up everything, 
thrust your bewilderments on me! So it is no thanks to you 
that you did not make me insane. But — at my birth Zelzah 
had saved me from that! 

“Such miraculous experiences as ours, are to be utilized for 
public good!’^ she said, motioning him back. Then, with a 
quivering voice and eyes full of tenderness she asked strangely, 
— “What should I marry you for? What and whom would 
you marry, if you married me? Jerome, you once said I was 
^ unburiable^ neither diabolic nor divine. Then, surely, I am 
unmarriageable. If one half the names you called me when 
I was a dear, kind little girl, were — ” 

“Geraldine, you donT understand!’’ said Mrs. Landseer 
swiftly, pitying Jerome and half dazed herself. 

But raising her tone, Geraldine went on steadily — “If half 
the hideous names you called me, were applicable to me, who and 
what is this phantom of your brain, whom you now call, Zel- 
zahrine?” 

“Power of Heaven save my brain” said Jerome. But Geral- 
dine pressed on. And as if urged to give him such a rational 
showing of the strange case, as would bring him that liberation 
of intellect which she was sure, could only come to him through 
an absolute control of his emotions she said, 

“Do you remember telling us that ‘young women were the 
curse of young men’s lives’ ? Doubtless you talked that way 
to Zelzah, even while (as if yielding to a temptation) you made 
her marry you and your false opinion of woman! You almost 
fixed this false opinion on me. You almost injured my self 
respect!” 

“Good Heavens,” said Jerome. “It would take a great deal 
to do that!” 

“Yes,” said Geraldine, “it would take some injurious judi- 
cial-blindness of my own! And no such deflection from bright- 


Who Builds ? 


315 


rightness, shall I ever ^choose,’ or be cajoled-intOy as poor 
Zelzah was! For I owe it to her, to properly utilize her sacri- 
fice for me! Do not be so full of old-fashioned angers, Jerome. 
You claim to be working for the betterment of the race, exactly 
through the upliftment of Womanhood. Then certainly, you 
do not feel sad at finding typical Womanhood knows she is 
BORN on the heights to which (otherwise, you were willing 
to sacrifice time and strength) in order to lift her? Mothered 
as you were, you have nothing to do, but come along, hand 
in hand with the best of the choice women and men of the 
epoch! Take it kind. Be a pleasant fellow-man! DonT be 
so ugly at seeing that what you have striven for is! What 
more do you want?^’ 

Zelzah! Ah-h-h- Geraldine!’^ stammered Mrs. Landseer, 
tense and listening as between two worlds, interiorly seeing 
and hearing Zelzah pleading with Geraldine to finish better 
work for Jerome than that which, unfinished, Zelzah had left be- 
hind her! Spiritual-pleadings in which, strangely Lamed her- 
self was allured to bear part: as if to make up for the wrong 
which, reasonably or unreasonably, she questioned if she had 
precipitated on Jerome in his boyish manhood, however uncon- 
sciously and unwittingly. And Geraldine (self-sustained-woman 
of a later period as she was) with one keen look into her 
Mother^s soul, and a gathering up of herself out of Zelzah^s in- 
fluence, putting back Lamed^s arresting hand — and arresting 
her further words, continued, unfalteringly strengthened in her 
hold on the ‘ Angel that presides over human bodies,' 

— your intellect will not be liberated nor will you find 
yourself: nor be Self-Sovereign until you cease supposing that 
marriage ‘seals' to your ownership a creature which you are 
righteously sustained in deluging with yourself: no matter 
WHAT sort of a self you know that ‘self' to be. 

“Woman never did mortal a better turn than Zelzah did you 
when she left you to reflect on your self! The shock made you 
think. Before, swayed hither and thither, you would have 
sunken in emotionalism — " 

Again Lamed's arresting hand met the rebuff: 

“Let be! Let each answer his own intruders! I am not 
interfering with your duties of the future! Interfere not you 
with mine of the present, mighty-moment ! " 


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tell you I cannot live without woman’s help/’ said 
Jerome, looking from one to the other, as simply as a child. 

^‘No one asks you to!” said Geraldine, as simply as another. 

Marry me then, Zelzahrine and I will rev — ” 

“Jerome, I am not Zelzahrine nor Zelzah nor any confusion 
or diffusion of Zelzah. She is still herself and has yet to attend 
to (and I want her to make no mistake about it) her own 
Karma! I am enlivened by her experiences and grateful. Oh! 
how grateful for her savior-like Grace to me before I was born 
and at birth and often since. But I am not she. She is one 
of the saints, whom Jesus (in speaking of such reputations) 
said ^ . — shall enter the Kingdom before you.’” 

“And well she may! She is there!” said Jerome, taking the 
pronoun in the text, personally; as not all men would have 
done: bringing from Geraldine a clasp of hand and the words, 
“Kind Jerome! I could almost love you, you are so good to 
Zelzah. Continue good by being better and letting her rest. 
She bids us all let her rest — as she now ascends to where 
she was before, I am sure, now that she knows that each of 
us is ready and able to utilize what of her sacrificial-Life each 
may choose to do. Knowing this, she will pass away up to 
where she was before with the triple-crowned, resurrected- 
crucified who, millions and millions of them, have died, bearing 
Man’s sins in their bodies and names on the tree of Life. 

“Let her go. I am only I. And am not (and never will I 
be) an atone-ing sacrifice for any head-long brute that a beast- 
government may choose to cultivate! No never! Lamed, 
keep your hand off of me. Live your own life! Patch up 
whom you choose! Leave me to choose my work. ^On the 
ramparts of Betulia,’ I will stand. And I would to my Lord, 
I might, like Judith, do my Nation as great service as she did 
hers; when (sacrificing appearances to principle) she went 
into the tent of the brutal-destroyer of her Country’s purity 
and Liberty, and — utilizing circumstances and the consequences 
of his drunkenness, took off that reveler’s empty-head before 
his muddled-mind-managed more maliciousness.” 

“Geraldine I protest,” cried Lamed. 

“What do you protest against? / have but thought an 
heroic-mmAer, Generals and millions of army-men enact it 
without thought. My thought has gone forth carrying death 


Who Builds ? 


317 


to the evil principle which filled Holofernes and his licentious- 
like. Military-murderers kill men but leave alive the mur- 
derous-principle, breathed forth by war-victims even as they 
fall but to be birthed again into more brutery. 

^‘Jerome, Jerome she cried in voice so fully Zelzah’s own, 
that with hands clasped he looked at her as a mad man might ; 
barely held back by her swift flying words, Jerome! If you 
would speed forward the business of facilitating intercourse 
between Heaven^s realms and Earth’s depths, (as our never- 
to-be-sufficiently-thanked electric-geniuses have facilitated the 
world’s commercial and ordinary business) you must learn to 
adapt yourself to the ^Necessities’ of (not brutes but) that 
self-poised-womanhood which, in times past, was of little help: 
because (being little understood) she was hated and cheated 
o\it-oi-herself and crucified by the male-factors of a malifically- 
dominated race!” 

‘^Wait! Wait! Now one word from — myself. Zelzah is 
Risen!” 

She caught her breath with a sigh of relief and contentment. 
Then, ^^Dear Master Konnyngscrown : I tell you, you builded 
better than you knew when in wrath you said, 'young women 
were the curse of young men’s lives.’ It sent me into self- 
search! And I found myself! Now you must go into that 
'far-country’ and there 'earn Master’s wages,’ or, when the 
trial-hour comes, you will clique-in with men who treat Enosh, 
Gueber and even the very highest type, as if they were Ish- 
maelites against whom every man’s hand should be turned 
exterminatingly.” 

The icelike brilliancy of her purely intellectual zeal had 
drawn the company about her. Ishtar and Frantze with a 
calm inspection of the case had drawn nearest : and she, taking 
a hand of each said, "My Ishtar and dear Ish-ma-elit-ish- 
Frantze, let your betrothal be now and here.” 

"Where or when better?” questioned Frantze. "Then to- 
gether up and down this electrically-minimized world, we will 
answer the query 'When shall the fangdom of Heaven come?’ 
in the words of the Christ who knew and who said 'It shall 
come when that which is without is as that which is within! 
Neither male nor female but both in the being of each!’ Shall 
our betrothal be now and here, Ishtar my 'Ish’?” 


318 


Who Builds f 


If so you like — I will betroth you here for a marriage accord- 
ing to St. Joseph, who was the husband of that Mary who was 
the Mother of the Jesus who was the Son of God!^’ 

Breathless was the stillness filling the woody-realm. The 
waving southern palms a’near the balcony heights, tapped, 
finger-like as in sympathy with the higher-evolutionary-thought 
of that on-coming functional development which makes The 
Man that is to be! 

Thoughts filled them of the father who had gone and who 
was to come again: and thoughts of the prevailing certainty 
that the mother^s grief at the taking off the two-wise looking 
little midgets was less than was her recognition that their birth 
and transit had brought to the family-archives, a Knowledge 
as to what had caused their demise: and was less than was her 
Exaltation that this knowledge must thereafter be made ser- 
viceable to the yet-again-to-be-born two, old, ^ wise-acres.^ 
Thought-flashes they were, revealing Lamed’s old recognition 
that the short life lived by her ^ sons’ at least had brought them 
(and left with them) a smarting remembrance of blunders made 
by them prenatally. Reminding her of a couplet, found over 
a tiny grave in an old English church yard : — 

‘Tf I was to be so soon done for, 

I wonder what I was begun for'*; 

and reminding her of Tama’s further rhymed-questionings — 

‘^Whatever did I do or say 
When I was here that other day 
That made me have to go away, 

Though I’d but made that little stay?” 

including as that did, other questionings and discussions about 
the sorrow-submerged brains of the big-headed visitors : which 
questionings, young as the children then were, had given them 
to feel that those babes had not gotten all the benefits that 
hereafter Earth and its denizens must hold ready to give 
them when, sometime, somehow, somewhere, they should come 
back again, after having had a restful bath in Lethe’s waters. 

Pictured quicker than by flash-lights these things had come in 
on the waves of silence that had followed Ishtar’s words, rela- 


Who Builds ? 


319 


tive to a betrothal such as was that of The Mary who was the 
Mother of the Jesus. 

Then Allierri, stepping on the platform, inviting free speech 
and free thought, said ‘no philosophic-liberty can increase the 
labyrinthine confusion which results, wherever Will conglom- 
erates against Wisdom,^ as had said William Blake, the mighty 
picturer of his now valued mystic-philosophies. And Jerome 
filled with aspirations which had inspired that ‘Son of Albion’ 
taking Geraldine’s hand devotedly said: “Betroth me for a 
marriage like that of which Ishtar speaks! I ask nothing 
greater than to show my reverence, by the practice of the 
highest ideal ever entertained by woman even Anna, the Mother 
of her who was blessed among women.” 

And Geraldine whelmed again in that adumbration of the 
crucified Just man, looking from Zelzah’s eyes into Jerome’s, 
murmured, wonderingly, “We have nothing like it in our 
church — ” looking then to Tama who quickly interposed — 

“Now, now Gel’dine whateber dar is in nacher, mus’ be in 
a nacherly good chu’ch ef dat chu’ch only jes’ looks tings t’ru, 
‘nuf ter know what’s dar! An’ a marr’ge ’cordin’ ter St. 
Joseph, is a marr’ge ’cordin’ ter divine nacher. An’ dar ain’t 
no kind er doubt but dat any chu’ch dat’s built on der right 
foundation dat’s laid, — eben de Jesus dat was de son ob Mary, 
who was de han’maid ob de Lawd — would ’splain all dese mys- 
teries ob dat kin’ er marriage which is like de kingdom ob 
heaben! But Zelzahrine, you’se been bothered ’nuf wif all 
dose kin’ der t’ings. Massa Konnyngscrown’s don’ yer ’bout 
all der good he kin near hand. 

“Yer didn’t stay dead, Zelzah, long ’nuf ter git rid er yer 
last mem’ries of partickerlarly affections; so’s ter make it safe, 
right ’way, ter take on vows ob ’bedience to anyting less dan 
dat Gre-at Sperit outen which yer is created. 

“Now Massa Konnyngscrown, yer jes’ go right ober dar; an’ 
set down quietly, an’ talk dis all ober wif yer sister-in law, de 
bes’ Rhoensteine ob dem all 1 An’ leabe dese young folks ter 
plan dere own plans, shet ob all de ole aches an’ hurts, dat a 
good ferget will help ’em disremember now dat dey know de 
fac’s as ter who dey is, an’ what dey has got ter do ’bout it 
dis time. 

“You’se a master good Mason, an’ yer better keep right on 


320 


Who Builds ? 


to yer highest business, ^long de line dat dis comin^ ob de 
Lawd’s own days has need ob! When de Massa calls fer yer, 
he’ll ask ter see what kin’ ob huildM you’se been doin’ an’ 
he’ll tell yer dat in der Kingdom ob Heaben, dar’s nuther 
marryin’ ner givin’ in marriage ’cos dar, we is each got ter be 
like der angels ob der Lawd. Mebbe he’ll tell yer, you’se done 
’nuff er marryin’: ’cose it don’t ’gree wif yer, as yer manage 
it! Dese young folks hab a perfec’ right ter range ober dis 
e\eQ>ij:\Q,littleized worl’ (dat Frantze talks ’bout so pretty); but 
as fer we Ariostos — we’ve got ter git back home anyway; an’ 
see what oder work has got ter be fulfilled at der Massa’s 
House, by der Missis ob it. ^Cose she can’t drap all dat good 
work nor let dat Ian’ out ’en her ban’s wif all de peoples dar, 
what’s clean in der habit now, ob ’pendin’ on Missis’s house 
fer a center ter work out from. You two oders, ain’t had no 
business talk dis yere long time, ef ebber. An’ Massa Kon- 
nyngscrown, yer orter be gittin’ outen dat Ian’ yer leased ob 
Madam Landseer, — or — or sumfin? — ” 

A radiant light burst with dark splendors into the eyes that 
Jerome raised to Lamed Ariosto-Landseer; who, with color 
heightening as her amazement increased, listened till now, 
bewilderment brightened into mirth-filled intelligence while the 
room rang with laughter as Tama’s meaning burst on them 
all. It was as if the days had come when Hhe sound of chil- 
dren laughing, is to be heard on the streets.’ And Mr. Kon- 
nyngscrown, illumined and full of a new self-discovery, with a 
swift step forward, exclaimed, blankly, — 

^^What?” 

But there were volumes in the one word. 

And with a more intense activity of brain than ever had be- 
fallen him, his big hand swiftly struck his thigh, as upstraight- 
ening his muscular but lithe form, he halted. Then, bending 
to catch again the light forth-breaking from Lamed’s incom- 
parable spirit, he exclaimed: — 

'^You said years ago, ^we need not be fools, but that we 
might none the less be friends.’ Is it so today Madam Land- 
seer?” 

‘^It is so today and has been. I have always known you for 
a splendid friend to me and mine Mr. Konnyngscrown,” she 
answered simply. ^^If Free-masonry upbuilt you, that order 


Who Builds ? 


321 


should have its share of the honor which will belong to those 
who build this New Age. 

She rose as she spoke and his arm went through hers; and, 
with a lift forward of three long steps taken together they 
had suddenly halted and turned dropping each the other^s 
arm, before they had noticed their united action. And he, 
rubbing his whole head over as if giving it a stroke of muscular 
lightning, jerked it in, from right to left, and with an over- 
whelming illumination ejaculated, 

‘‘My friend! Do you mean, — will you let, — that is, shall we 
be builders together? Society Builders? And shall your 
home be — ?’^ 

“My friend, we will be society-builders together, and my 
home shall be just as serviceable a center for our united work, 
as it has been increasingly since you lived in the house over the 
hill from whence you rang forth a call for fetching people to- 
gether to learn a skilled use of the Key that unlocks the treas- 
ures of the Universe! 

“We are friends! But do not think of putting chains on 
yourself in the hope that they will give you freedom. Re- 
member, we need not be fools in order to be friends,’^ she re- 
peated with axiomatic quietude, taking his arm in the presence 
of this company, all of whom had come up out of great tribu- 
lation and had washed their lives in brain-torture. Then with 
her arm passed around the easel that supported Archibald's 
portrait, she said, including them all in her reverie: — 

“Friends all: my marriage, such as it was — and it was all 
I suppose we could make it to be — still is. Death is nothing. 
Archibald still lives. That at least is my opinion.” 

Her words came hesitatingly as she added, — “At least — ” 
then she stopped, earnestly searching to get at the peculiar 
fact — and willingly including them all in her reverie. Then 
for their sake, her own, Jerome’s and above all, for Archibald's, 
— she went on — “There has always been like a song in my ears, 
that mighty affirmation, — ‘Thy Maker is thy Husband.’ The 
music of it steadied me in days when my heart could only add — 
‘and my Husband is my child!’ And he is still my child in 
the Kingdom of Heaven, where angels, (others and my own) 
are doing their best for him that he shall not suffer a too irre- 
mediable loss, because of his act. I will (and I always meant 


322 


Who Builds ? 


to) do him good all the days of my life. That was my vow. 
He is my husband still — and one of that name is enough. He 
meant to be my friend. I was, invariably his: and still am. 
But (she gave Jerome her hand) — ^^We, none the less may 
also be friends and Geraldine too, is your friend. Is that a 
compact, simple and cool?. Well, wait. Let me tell you an- 
other thing. 

“One day when I came into mental-freedom, I inscribed in 
a book my new name and vocation. It read, — Lamed- Ariosto ; 
Landseer, For the power to see the land which lies before 
the race, if the race will but enter in and possess it — had been 
given as guerdon to me who had gone forth bearing precious 
seed and who, at last now have returned bringing sheaves. 
Sheaves, whose seed-corn was ^keen-discrimination,^ — a most 
serviceable but a most thorning sheaf to gather and plant at 
such a time as this ! This week before I left home, I wrote, 
adding an unpleasant adjective and adverb to that name and 
vocation; — thus: — ^I am Lamed- Ariosto, the 'painfully critical 
Landseer.’ 

“So, as a seer of the land before you, Jerome, I can be your 
serviceable friend. And the 'wounds of a friend are faithful.’ 
But — the wounds of a critical wife? Dear God: — there is no 
name bitter enough for ihe'mV^ 

She bowed over the picture, laying her hand motherly on 
that brow. 

Radiant and calm was her face when, lifted, it was turned 
on the company, from whom there had been nothing apart in 
her words. For this was not unlike a high-religious conference- 
meeting in which an honest effort is being made that there 
'shall be nothing secret that shall not be made known.’ 

“As Tama says, we have all much to arrange! For me, the 
work and worth of life seem climaxing. Oh 1 — Please hear me 
Mr. Konnyngscrown while I ask you to go over to Robert 
Eloiheem, and let him tell you, how far it is from necessary 
that any man should depend utterly on any woman in order 
to discover his life’s real Beauty and Blessedness. 

“I am your friend, and therefore I aid in keeping you free 
from chains which you now should cease to forge for yourself. 
Geraldine is right. Women are made of firmer stuff than is ac- 


Who Builds ? 


323 


credited to them by their brothers; and should be left free to 
assume their own quality and utilize it. Give them a chance 
and see if they are not the ^Golden Builders’ to whose faculties 
must be given free play in order that the ‘Tower shall be 
finished.’” 

Jerome Konnyngscrown fell on his knee before her, lifting 
her hand to his lips, grateful to her midst his vacillations, for 
so gallantly showing him himself in that time of need which 
comes before ‘loneliness inures to oneliness.’ 

“What more could earth give a man?” he said. 

“Oh! Dat’s all right ’nuff Massa Konnyngscrown!” said 
Tama, with less of her calm than usual, “specially for you-uns! 
As dey say in de nussery, — ‘a kiss fer a blow allers bestow, an’ 
angels will bress yer where eber yer go!’ So dat’s all finished.” 
(But beholders thought, not to her satisfaction.) “An’ now 
our business am ter go in fer all de wisdom dere is, an’ ter hab 
Universal Peace Arbutration ’tween all dat de sciences knows, 
an’ all dat de Free Masons tink dey knows; an’ all dat de an- 
cient religions t’roughout de work knows. We need it all, 
’cause we’s all iggronant! Laws! How iggronant we is!” 

“ Yes ! But may the Lord keep us steady if we get to learning 
much more too suddenly!” said the long celibate man. And 
lifting up his ringing Hohenzollern-English voice he started a 
Masonic round. And, as if by prearrangement, full clear con- 
tralto voices followed, repeating after him the first strain, suc- 
ceeded by tenors and climaxed by the basses ; till having sung it 
through three times, the last strain was repeated again by the 
soprano, and yet again till the four parts, came together in 
unison, singing the words and strain: — “The Universal Lodge.” 


324 


Who Builds ? 



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Who Builds ? 


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326 


Who Builds f 


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Who Builds ? 


327 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Known as souls enabled to rebuild the body they inhabit, to an extent 
limited only by Rectitude to personal ideal of The Possible. 


\1^HILE ( ?) at least — the pictures looked on. 

^ ^ Later, when they had arisen from their midnight sup- 
per, Daniel Eloiheem, in response to Jerome’s outbreak, said: 

Never fear learning too much too suddenly, my dear 
Konnyngscrown. For the Lady of Life — Anima Mundi — will 
hold men steady amid all complications, if they but leave the 
Anemone-like flower of woman’s spirit to yield to the wind 
that tells what it knows to the ear that lists. 

^^As Madame Landseer realizes, in proportion as subliminal- 
truths are scientifically unfolded, the mists will clear away 
before Intelligence. And natural curiosity (which desires 
to obtain Knowledge concerning the higher-facts relative 
to Higher-Life) will thus send us on our way to Higher-planes 
of Intelligence.” 

^^Ob co’se,” said Tama. ^^Dat’s what Wisdom is heT temp- 
tin’ like ’bove our iggronance fer. ’Co’s some folkes has ter 
eat ob der tree of de Knowledge as ter what’s good and what’s 
betterer, ’fore dey kin die ter dere iggronance as to what’s 
what!” she added in an exaggeration of her ‘^negro-lingo.” 

“All of which” (Daniel said) “is probably true of most of 
us, at different stages on the upclimbing-way.” Then, pass- 
ing Mrs, Landseer a symbolic charm, he said: 



“But here is the pearly Ankh, — a divinitized hand, which 
holds in its grasp the symbol of all that is requisite for meeting 
individual and Universal Needs. It is a symbol (so I under- 
stand) of the pure, unselfseeking Power which cannot be con- 


328 


Who Builds ? 


ferred by Church or State, but must be evolved through an 
age-long Rectitude to the principles of Virtue, Truth, and 
Justice, which sustains others in the Liberty which it asks 
for self! 

‘‘Dear Madame Landseer: we, assembled here, realize that 
you have set aside social-intercourse, general-interests and 
ordinary achievements, in your endeavor to practicalize your 
philosophy of Life which you think is capable of co-ordinat- 
ing inordinate states of character, so that, oncoming social- 
conditions will be full of health, peace, and self-sanctifying- 
growths of body, mind, and estate/^ 

“In listening to your experiences, I have keenly appreciated 
that the Hold you have kept on the Anchor-of-the-Soul has 
carried you unharmed, up out of conditions which otherwise, 
not only would have swamped you, but would have foreclosed 
the possibility of your family^s marked individual-develop- 
ment. This meeting was called to give us all an opportunity 
of stating, in as concise language as we can command, ungar- 
nished facts concerning the ethical implications of the philos- 
ophy of evolution. Tell us then, what your weird experi- 
ences have taught you concerning that which this symbol 
typifies.” 

Jerome, wondering why he could not long ago as definitely 
have asked for this — forgetting, that Daniel was nearly a 
centenarian-student of Animism and that there were “set 
times and seasons” when the right word can be spoken, and 
the right act can be done, yet wishing to identify himself 
thus publicly with this request, and little thinking how val- 
uable his interruption would prove to be, — taking Mrs. Land- 
seer’s hand and bowing over it, said: 

“Dear Madame, I recognize your wisdom in waiting for 
time to ripen my patience and tighten my hold on the Ankh: 
before discussing what now may well be discussed in this 
company of students of Life’s Higher Graces. I add my re- 
quest, that you will tell us how, to your mind, the significance 
of the Ankh differs from much else that has been said of this 
unspeakable power. For, on this, my fiftieth birthday, on 
the eve of this new year 1900, I not only face the fact that 
mind is a finer ‘body,’ and that it is the refiner of the body 


Who Builds ? 


329 


as fire is of gold; but also my recognition that there are three 
distinct planes (or ^discreet degrees^ as Swedenborg calls them) 
of character development, gives me a basis for what I can 
accept on no other, namely: a basis for class distinctions, 
incident to the ‘discreet degrees’ of unlikeness which exist 
between the class of persons who dwell amidst animalized 
enervating complexities: and the next class who, having at- 
tained the more excellent plane of a Rational Use of external 
blessings, yet cannot grasp (or believe that others grasp) by 
intellection, a distinct, supernal realm of Juris Prudentia (or 
pre-judgment and foresight-of-coming-events) on which plane 
Mrs. Landseer certainly must have stood as is shown by 
the portentous revelations made in the early part of the even- 
ing. 

“Doubtless there are three distinct classes of society. We 
must face the fact that they live in different worlds, and we 
must deal with them accordingly. Yet, at times, they im- 
pinge on each other!” he said, halting perplexed at finding 
his Pegasus ‘ balled up ’ in its rush over a muddy road to aerial 
heights. Seeing which, Ishtar interpolated: 

“They more than impinge. Impinge is to clash one against 
another.” 

“Just so!” said he. “And that’s what they do in many 
cases! yes, and in me too, time and again.” 

“Then,” said Ishtar, “each person must classify his own 
states, rather than go into the meddling business of trying to 
make and define artificial class-distinctions among individuals, 
in the state.” 

“Well, that is an idea!” said Jerome. “However, I will 
tell you a story which will prove — that is to say — you can tell 
me when I get done what it does prove relative to this clashing 
and impinging among individuals. 

“My mother lived amid three worlds; and as she stood at 
‘the pass,’ tried to protect her right to reign in peace as queen 
of the home. What I tell you will show what she thought she 
had to do, in self defense, as she (I now suppose) tried to clas- 
sify her three states while keeping out of artificial meddling 
with those who are in each or any of these states,” said 
Jerome. 

“Like some other bright women she was nerve-strained 


330 


Who Builds ? 


over the deluge of what she called the ^body-business^ of 
dining, dressing and sleeping, for which she begrudged time. 
And even the nice home into which she more and more with- 
drew, did not ease off the almost waspish-touchiness which 
she felt at intrusions. 

^^So, one time, getting into (no, I mean, looking out on) 
psychic work and workers, she was so repelled at what she 
cruelly called Hhe reek of it' that when the president of a 
psychic-research society rather persistently asked ‘why she 
did not join,' she, pointing to Romeo her dog, answered, ‘I 
should like even dogs better if they were not so doggy.' Awak- 
ening the retort, ‘dogs must be doggy as long as they are dogs. 
But what / can't stand is, the having Madame so “dogged" 
now that she has gone up higher.' To which, in answer, 
my mother passing over the dog, gave it to him, saying, ‘Under 
your training it may escape developing the doggedness which 
is resistent of the smudge of psychic research.' 

“Now, here is a point. There must, unconsciously to her, 
have swept through his brain such a potentialized force, 
as stirred up the muddy sediment of his whole being, infuriat- 
ing him into the retort: ‘You are nasty. I can't stand it,' — 
blamelessly polite though in his religious nature he tended 
to be. But at his starting to leave the house, never hoping 
to put foot in it again, my mother, recognizing that there had 
come in on the discussion, the smudge of mysticism^ as op- 
posed to clarity of scientific coolness (which smudge tends to 
darken facts), said: ‘Repeat that!' Which he did. Then said 
she, ‘I shall think over the words and the reason back of 
them.' 

“When my father wanted the man horsewhipped, she held 
him back, keeping him steady under the charm of discriminat- 
ing accuracy as she said: — 

“‘My dear, it was necessary I should have one person speak 
to me and of me as I — not too seldom — speak to and of prin- 
ciples: which to the persons concerned, seems like speak- 
ing to and of them. I am in such cases misunderstood. But 
even then, I had almost forgotten that though it is said rela- 
tive to God's holiness that the “heaven of heavens are unclean 
in his sight" yet, from His Heights far above the Third 
Heaven" He looks forth winsomely-omnipresent; gloriously 
inspiring those who willj to come up higher.'!! 


Who Builds ? 


331 


father staring at her, said: ^ What^s that fellow^s upward 
advancement to you — ’ and she told him he sounded like the 
old prophet when he called up to God, ^What^s Man that 
Thou art mindful of Him / — and that she would answer back, 
as probably the Lord practically did: ‘He^s one of the million 
of billions of atoms who are as hard at it as each can he, trying 
to get up higher/ 

“And my father, with an intellectual start, ejaculated: 

“^Divine Humility is the highest Form of ValorT — with 
(as I now know) the emphasis on the first syllable, which I 
have heard Mrs. Landseer use, in speaking of her philosophy 
of 'i7i/manity.’ 

“And then (for he was a devoted lover of his perplexing 
wife) father gave an hour to listening as she went off into 
such enchanting rhapsodies concerning Je-/ii/-vah^s refulgent 
way of ecstatically filling all climbers with evolutionary-fires 
of aspiration, that I (not then comprehending this spiritual- 
afflatus because of then being a pupil of Schopenhauer^s 
?>eas^-theory of Man) in fact, — could not stand that” 

The shock of his short stop, was enough. But with a long 
drawn breath, he ejaculated: “And there^s where the com- 
plications come in! Persons on different planes of develop- 
ment (I mean refinement) of Life, cannot discuss Hhe invisible 
things of God' without misunderstandings." 

“That's where the Law of Silence serviceably comes in," 
said some one. 

“I am far from sure of that," said Jerome. “I, like my 
mother, realize silence may be made to include such smudgy 
domineering by the more animalized magnetisms over persons 
of spirit ized-potencies, as might absolutely ruin and craze 
those subjected to it. The use of brutal psychic force may be 
more death-dealing and demoralizing than any other power 
in the world. I think it was of just such dominance that, 
in part, the Saviour said: ^Fear not those who kill the body, 
but fear those who have' (or use) ^ power which can cast both 
soul and body' into the reek of the emotional swelter which 
is making a hell on earth in these days." 

There was an outburst of mixed responses over the room. 
Jerome went on: — 

“I now can say, Mrs. Landseer, women do right in staying 


332 


Who Builds ? 


at home and repelling intrusion, as my mother wanted to do 
when she tried, as queen of home, to keep the home atmos- 
sphere as she wanted it kept, that is? well, what that atmos- 
phere should be, remains for Madame Landseer to tell us. 
For she has kept me pretty much out of her house these eight 
years, and I living just over the hill. She had good reason! 
Let her tell it, by explaining what this Ankh means and what 
distinctive difference she finds between the enervating, pyschic 
states, and the /n-nerving Spiritizing-Power incident to those 
who hold on to what this symbol signifies. 

Tossing big hands in air, and throwing himself into a chair, 
he had the appearance of having flung himself out of the fray, 
as evidently he thought he had a right to do, after so long 
having awaited answers to his questions. 

As by habit, Geraldine, not liking quite so cavalier a style 
of ordering her mother to tell all she knew before a lot of per- 
sons whom she did not particularly know, assisting the speaker 
forward, said: 

‘^Yes, my sister-mother, tell them this Ankh symbolizes the 
^ Angel of the Covenant who presides over^ (but never suc- 
cumbs to) ^ Human Bodies ^ unflinchingly holding the soul 
against the material-tendencies of anybody's magnetism. 
For, mother: we are talking of the science of all sciences, 
which as far as I know, no church has uttered for the general 
education of such citizens of such a Republic as we almost 
disastrously have proved ^cannot exist unless its citizens^ are 
thus educated.^ ^A science, which must now experimentally be 
practicalized by the whole family in heaven and earth,’ and in 
realms under the earth, in order to civilly resist the floods 
of mercenary hypnotism (as well as the kindly-intended psy- 
chical interference) of persons who think they can better tell 
others what they can do than others can tell themselves; for- 
getting that those who generation after generation have been 
engaged in man-building instead of money-making, are not 
willing to deflect from their main design.” 

^^And that that Design in its ultimatum,” put in Ishtar, 
^‘as Shakespeare intimates, is to make ^melt this too solid 
flesh’ by spiritizing it through and through.” 

There,” cried Jerome. There’s the trouble. If we let 
loose on ourselves these women’s ideals, it is likely that not 


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333 


only total abstinence but total fasting and self-obliteration 
will be the regime to which we will be reduced. Is it not so, 
Mrs. Landseer?^’ 

Lamed, looking at Jerome, said: — 

^‘Friends, Sisters and visitors all, where so much is known, 
what need that I say anything 

^‘We might say that of any discussion among equals,’^ said 
Jerome. 

‘‘Very well; then as we are ‘akin in our mutual self-under- 
standing,’ I will say what little I may be able to add, relative 
to the symbolism of the Ankh. For a square understanding 
of Animism as distinguished from animalism, and of the self- 
/n-nervating principle as opposed to enervating animalism, 
will, I think, bring us to that ‘state of grace’ which all 
religionists. Calvinists, Catholics, and Natural Scientists hope 
to see humanity attain. For this State of Grace will enable 
each individual to establish on the supreme bench of his own 
soul’s judgment-Hall, his Interior Better-Half, Wisdom. 

“Now for the Ankh. As you know, there appear scenes, 
sculptured on the walls of Egypt’s now largely exhumed 
temples, where stand friends, holding out to other friends the 
Ankh as masons of old, in their palmy days (that is, when in 
their palms was the power of this Ankh) gave each other the 
Hand-Grip: thus imparting something of that invisible-posses- 
sion, on the right use of which hinge health and prosperity of 
body, soul and estate. 

“Egypt in its palmy days was a land where wisdom had 
become cure for warfare, want, and woe, as well as the synonym 
of wealth. It was a land where science was applied to daily 
life: and where Li]e applied to its prime purpose reaped pre- 
rogatives which reached the zenith of earth’s glory; piercing 
the heavens so, and letting in lights from the ‘Father of Lights’ 
‘in whom there is no shadow of turning,’ like that incidental 
to the apparent setting of the sun.” 

She halted, drawing herself back from utterances that would 
perhaps seem hysterical; and, taking refuge instead in histor- 
ical facts said : 

“Moses was learned in the arts of the Egyptians. He was 
not of those of whom Jehovah is reported as saying, ‘My 
people are brutish: they will not consider.’ For, on the con- 


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trary, Moses had taken into full consideration the fact that 
the Egyptians possessed magical powers precisely because of 
the scientific use they made of that which the Ankh typifies. 
For this Indwelling self-harmonizing Power of the perfected 
human is exercisable only, through allegiance, in every thought, 
word, and act, to the principles of Virtue, Truth, Justice, and 
Liberty to all. 

This exercise of those principles in that way, includes a 
scientific inhalation of the Spirit of the Air, which updrawn 
to the brain, frees it from being a body-suffering slave, as 
surely as it steadies the ‘brain against becoming a too-over- 
mastering Master of the body. 

^^In Egypt ^s palmy days woman could easily do right by 
men who understood and sought to establish conditions, 
’mid which success was attained by those who gained that 
self-wholeness which insures sanity and sanctity. For Ani- 
mists knew that those whose whole being comprehends union- 
with-Spirit, deal not with appearances, but with that Prin- 
ciple of Life which presides latently in every individual-soul, 
and affluently in souls where the palm-touch of intuition is 
as swift as is the wing-action of the symbol of Athene — the 
courageous fly whose endurance is undauntable and inex- 
haustible! ” 

Again she halted, self-repressed. Then like a good general- 
reorganizing forces, she said again: 

“It is my opinion that disease and disorder come from 
some hindrance in the way of the elastic soul’s upward ten- 
dency: so that, unless there is a combustion of these obstruc- 
tions, there must be a congestion of the soul’s forces. Medi- 
cals, Clericals, and Mothers above all, should fix attention on 
removing whatever hinders the soul’s fulfillment of that where- 
unto it feels Itself to have been sent into the very body it 
inhabits: wLich body I believe, is an outward sign of the 
inward state to which the occupant had attained in the previ- 
ous incarnation; so that the body it enters on the succeeding 
incarnation, is the body it had fashioned previously; thus 
making the ego responsible for its body because it is physically 
conformed to its previous, personal history. My experience 
in mothering souls upholds this theory. For I gave birth 
to two hydrocephalous-brained children because, the con- 


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335 


gested-mental-activities with which restrictions had over- 
loaded my brain, attracted them, the pauvres miserables! to 
my sphere. 

I had not succumbed under the task, each case would 
have given me a business to manage large enough to have ex- 
cluded all other concerns from attention for the rest of my life. 
For if I had understood the cause, as I now understand it, I 
should have held myself responsible for having let circumstances 
fetch on me that congestion of powers which (as like seeks 
like) attracted these congested-brained-egos to home them- 
selves under my heart. But I was deluged in self-stultifica- 
tion. Therefore they were born, died and were bodily buried, 
though their souls are still somewhere awaiting further devel- 
opment. 

“And friends though I got through the misery of it all as 
well as I could, I never have lost my sense that my share 
in the matter, indefinite though it still is, remains incom- 
plete.’^ 

“Look not so marble pale dear Madame, they (the hydro- 
cephalous-brained) learned something in even that short life,” 
said Jerome, thinking of what he had learned one morn- 
ing, down in the grass-world. And acquiescingly she con- 
tinued : 

“It is one belief, characteristic of the Animists, that a Human 
Principle presides over each body animating its every part and 
particle. So, though this human apparitional principle, 
is of an etherealized Substance, it really is more vitally The 
Ego, the ^ I, myself,’ than is the outward body. 

“This principle (so say the Animists who are as far removed 
from Animalism as they are from mere psychism) bears a 
bodily-form and is capable of withdrawing from the external- 
body; — and it is my opinion, Zelzah’s apparitional principle, 
withdrew from her body and — being in alignment with The 
works of the Spirit’ — came to me: with the mentally pre- 
arranged purpose of informing with itself the then unborn 
body of my third babe: so as to enable who-should-come, to 
be such a Deifically-impelled Incarnation that — ” 

“ — if but, she be willing and obedient, will then be known 
amid the world’s workers as — ” 

“I, Geraldine Landseer!” cried out that one, with a ring of 


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tone unsupposable. who will be ^willing and obedient^ 
to the Angel who presides over Bodies and who makes the 
obedient to be, handmaids of the Lord!^^ — And Lamed, not 
interrupted, any more than she had been by her sense of the 
portentous matters at stake, continued — 

“ — known among us as a soul enabled to rebuild the body it 
inhabits to an extent limited only by its faithfulness to its 
own ideal of humanity ^s possibilities/’ 

“Why not?” said Ishtar, the student of the evolution of 
lower forms of life. “What may not self-conscious images of 
Eloihim (the One in whose trinitized likeness we are created) 
be expected to achieve?” 

Had Somewhat passed by? 

As in holy night on Judea’s plain, were conditions unthink- 
able a’near? 

The pearly Ankh cut in moonstone became softly luminous 
as the light-rays fell on it; while as if hushed by the Angel 
of the Annunciation whose analytic and synthetic mysteries- 
unique, had always worked in her being a high expectancy of 
glorious things spoken by prophets, Lamed Ariosto-Rhoen- 
steine: Landseer, said: 

“The unrest (which moves at the soul’s depths of Anna-like 
women who, fettered but not sensualized, have endured condi- 
tions for only as long as endurance was requisite while getting 
the world ready for the future of Daughters, who, Mary-like, 
will 'ponder these things in their heart’ of hearts) is an unrest, 
which will redound to the perfection of The Man that-is-to-be.” 

She halted, a-tremble with her Vision of the Probable then, 
collected, said: 

“Friends: — you have asked me to give my idea of the way 
to prepare for the coming of the Lord (not of realms or of 
religionists but) of scientific self-sovereignty : the Complete 
Man : — the Man that is to be. 

“In answer I will first refer to what we see and hear has 
already been done by Frantze’s mother. Lady Alice: and by 
Jerome’s mother and other Elect Ladies. That is, s(elf)elect 
women who have prearranged to select and give the first 
thirty years of married life to the business of presiding over 
the family whom they fore-ordain shall be a Holy Family, in 
virtue of the mother’s determination that each soul shall be 


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337 


selectedly-attracted to her sphere by her recognition of its 
prenatal fitness, before it shall be allowed to incarnate under 
her heart or join those congregated under the marital roof- 
tree/' 

‘‘Madame Landseer!’’ ejaculated Jerome. “Do you mean to 
say there are or have been women who have unflinchingly and 
successfully lived up to this idea of — of select or (self) elected 
marital family building?” 

Lamed’s black orbs met his steadily as she said: 

“I thought you knew that the Eloiheem family had so lived. 
I thought all here knew that a half century ago Althea Eloi 
(the marvelously brave Hebrew maiden) had with conscious 
self-assertion publicly announced that she and her future 
consort — whoever he might be — would thus live in marital 
home, or marital home she would have none.” 

Jerome flung upward, raised hand-palms, emphatically 
signifying his retirement into listening attention: and with 
kindliness of look and heart she affirmed: 

“Yes. Mr. Konnyngscrown knows the mystical history of 
those attempts: and it is for the study of the practical results 
of these attempts at scientific self-management and home- 
building, that we here have gathered. So, following up his 
own trend of thought concerning the ‘three discreet degrees’ 
of attainment in character building, I will try to show why 
woman must needs keep such a grip on the anchor of spirit- 
power as will make its effluence to be helmet, breast-plate and 
shield-like Rebutter, of every adverse, disintegrating external 
influence (or inflow) from mere mortal mind. 

“I opine before their sons were born, Jerome’s mother nor 
the mother of Frantze had not consciously so co-ordinated soul 
and body with Spirit Supreme, as to have lifted themselves 
up out of the waspish (but then serviceable) state of ‘I-am- 
holier-than-thou.’ And it was this lack of uplift which Mrs. 
Konnyngscrown had recognized, at the time when the valor 
of her well-defined humility concerning this lack, so struck 
up her husband’s attention, that it drew him up after her: 
causing her, in the barphometic-baptism of new revelations, 
to burst forth in such a magnificat of the glory of the indwelling 
Power of Life that her own son could not stand it. 

“Now I know what occurred at that crisis. And I can best 


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make it understood, if with me you will look at the well- 
beloved story of what befell the young Rabbi of Galilee, when 
he exclaimed, ^Who touched me?^ and when his astonished 
disciples and Peter answered, ^Master, the multitude throng 
and press about Thee and sayest Thou, Who touched me?’ — 
no more comprehending that the pressing of the crowd bodily 
about the Master was not the touch of which he spoke, than 
they comprehended him, when he replied to them with marked 
accent: ^Somebody has touched me; for I perceive virtue has 
gone out of me’; — though these words, with his accent, should, 
I think, have conveyed to disciples that the touch of which he 
spoke was a touch of soul-power applied for the exact purpose 
of drawing off Spirit-potency. For the touch had attracted 
Wirtue’ as an antidote and curative of the Results of the 
bodily-abusive-methods, which (generation after generation) 
had distorted what otherwise would have been a Supplier of 
spiritual Potency, into an Abstracter of It. Which Result had 
rendered very exigent the touch that must have shot to the 
core of the responsive Being from which came forth Wirtue’; 
— the radical dictionary meaning of which is, ^a stretching, 
straining, extending,’ or the Equality by which bodies produce 
effects upon others.’ 

^^Now this is my idea of it: I think that, as then there was a 
call on Jesus for such virtue in order to cure the epochical- 
Result of that nearly-two-thousand-year-ago-type of woman, 
so such Virtue’ or Equality’ was an involuntary Soul-gift from 
Madame Konnyngscrown, when, starting back questioningly, 
she rebuffed that touch of magnetic dominance, uttering Jesus- 
like words as she reconsidered the manner of touch which had 
drawn on her spiritual reservers. In both cases these touches 
were found to be a purposely-applied-suction-power of a con- 
suming urgency that was regardless of everything else, except 
getting for self what self wanted. 

Madame Konnyngscrown thus learned woman’s necessity 
to keep such a self-centered hold on the Ankh (simple and 
impersonal) as cleanses and rebuts the influence from and 
affluence of all forms of maZeific greed and guile. 

^'As for the ecstatic outburst which fittingly might have 
been attributed to an Oriental’s dreams of paradise, its effect 
showed her that new self-restrictions would be requisite till she 


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339 


should have become fixed immovably on that third plane of 
attainment. For until then^^ — 

Lamed Ariosto halted. Then removing her eyes, which 
were on Archibald's pictured gaze, to Jerome’s she said: 

‘^For until then — women, who have truly followed their 
Lord in his regeneration, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, 
need must, for a time, say like the Lord, ^ Touch me not, for I 
have not yet ascended to my Father.’” 

A weird, muffled cry of anger came forth from Jerome, as 
he said, red with turbulence: 

^‘But allowing there are some, at this discreet-degree of 
attainment, then. Lamed (pardon) Madame, in the name of 
the Lord tell us when these fantastical (pardon) — I mean 
these touchy — enigmas will be so firmly fixed on their con- 
founded pinnacles as to be not Hoo bright and good for human 
nature’s daily food’?” (For he was an awful man to deal 
with in his black moments when no restrictions were placed 
on persons, who chose to be exteriorly as ugly as they still 
at times were interiorly.) Lamed, however, had had experi- 
ences of such rough-shod riding over holy-places, by him who 
now, quite at one with her aspirations and theories, seemed 
looking down from the picture frame. So with kindly con- 
sideration, she asked: 

^‘Is that not a lazy-soul’s miserably cannibal-like remark? 
I think it is. For the problem presented is not alone whether 
Woman is too bright and good to be devoured: but — also 
whether Humsm Nature is too bright and good for such Food. 
For Real /fi^manity has (as Jesus said He had) Hood to eat 
that the world knows not of.’ 

think it was to this distinguishing Human possibility 
and necessity that Jesus referred when, wearing the Acanthine 
wreath after his trial, he said (separating the Animalists from 
the Animists) ‘Yet a little while and you see me not: — and 
yet a little while and you shall see me’ — alluding last, to 
those Animists (the holders-on-to-the-Anchor-of-the-soul) — 
whose spiritized-sight would capacitate them to see his Spirit- 
ized-form as he ascended to where he was before with the 
Father: — assuring them, they should finally experience what 
he had promised, should be experienced by them; when (Om- 
nipotent, Omniscience, being Omnipresent in Him and in 


340 


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them) they should eat — not each other but — the Wine and 
Bread of Eternal Wisdom in the Kingdom of self-wholeness : 
which Kingdom, within us, is really one of such transfusion 
and infusion, as — in its nature — debars intrusion! Because 
persons of this Quality have allegiance to that Law of ^ Equal 
rights to all and special privilege to none,^ which once, the 
far-famed-American Ideal, boasted but to which it has never 
attained: nor can it attain: till Man, standing Self-Sovereign, 
leaves the Mother of Man to do the same/^ 

^^Good Lord, save my brain ejaculated Jerome. ^^Who 
do we expect can follow this brain-splitting confusion of words 
about transfusion, infusion, and intrusion?’' 

^^Why, of course, only those who love — not the confusion, 
but the diffusion of their distinctive meanings,” replied Mrs. 
Landseer. Those who, by the right use of these distinctive 
meanings, try to classify in words their own states and their 
emergencies from these states, to other higher-states. The 
others do it in acts, as they practically assert, ‘I’ll attend 
to my affairs, and you may attend to yours’; and, ‘Don’t 
you interfere with me, and I will not interfere with you. If 
you do — ’” 

“I’ll Impinge!” shouted Jerome, suddenly striking a bur- 
lesque boxer-blow into the air: throwing the company into a 
mixed state of merriment and alarm: out of which, with swift 
control of soul and voice he fetched them as, in billowing 
waves of passional-intensity, he thrillingly repeated sweetly- 
religious Lucy Larcom’s poem: 

Shall I doubt thy breath which I breathe, my God? 

Shall I reason myself into dust? 

Thy word flows fresh through the earth abroad; 

My soul to thy soul I trust! 

Thou hast entered into humanity. 

And hast made it, like thee, divine; 

And the grave and corruption it shall not see. 

This Holy One that is thine — 

leaving those who were little used to such tumultuous spon- 
taneity, to wonder whether these people were mad or whether 
Life to them was a matter of mental-theatricals in which 
each created his own ‘lines’ interpolatingly uttering them, 


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341 


when and where each pleased. Not knowing, that the Spirit- 
ized-mentality of these persons enabled each to see the other^s 
Spiritized-form-of Thought as, transcending all bondage, the 
uttered Thought ascended up to where it was before with 
Omniscience. Thus making ‘interruptions^ — which came at 
a speaker's halting time — to so deal with the toyic at stake 
(for that was the matter of interest to persons there assembled) 
as to cause the ‘halt^ and the interruption to act (like a Breath 
of Shaddai), sending the discussion forward to an unforeseen 
‘next step,^ auspicious to all concerned. 

Of course, such free manners and methods were a sharp 
offset to the ‘conspiracy of silence^ which at that epoch was 
seeking to overlay the point of contention between Guelph 
and Ghibelline with such teachings concerning ‘woman-self- 
effacement’ that the women of the anti-papistical-crowd, as 
well as those who were laying down life for the papal-Hier- 
archy, were commonly becoming so deluged in bewilderment 
concerning the highest use of their best functional-capacities, 
as to make it vitally requisite that they should be taught 
to hold on to and utilize the Spirit-‘ Virtue’ natal to Elect 
Ladies and s(elf)elect Home makers. 

Thus, at least, said Jerome with a \yarmth of self-surrender 
that revealed his certainty as to what he asserted. And he 
further illustrated his idea, by repeating a description, that 
an electrician had given him of the perfect-construction of 
that ancient electric-dynamo — known as ‘the Ark of The 
Covenant ’ — wherein dwelt the Shekinah that lighted the Israel- 
ites through the Desert- Journey. Which repetition of the 
electrician’s description revealed to those who had intelligently 
studied this Bible story that the ‘shock’ which his touch 
of it gave the man who, unqualified, touching, sought to steady 
the Ark, represented the Ark as a death-dealing-monster, 
instead of, as a life-giving savior and guide, to those who knew 
what they were doing. 

“So,” said Jerome in conclusion, “this brings me to assert 
that those who have attained the scientific-self-sovereign 
Power to complete The Manhood which marks the Elders, 
find themselves under the unwritten and unwritable Law 
of those Aristocrats who follow Aristarch’s ideal of that gov- 
ernment of the wisest and best which is made-up-of-those- 


342 


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who-best-serve-the-greatest-number-and-ask-least-for-self~in-re- 
turn: and, brings me to say, that this unwritten-law is very 
strenuous: because the Power of such-souls to give help con- 
cerning ultimates includes a moral inability to intrude help 
where it is not wanted: and where, therefore, those who prefer 
to do so, are best off while laboriously climbing and stumbling 
up the mountain side in their own way, as they skilfully use 
their own judgment} as to what comes next to them to do. 

“The very act of desiring to intrude on another disbars the 
would-be- Aristocrat ! For it tends to break his alliance with 
that ^ Angel of the Covenant’ who never presumes to inter- 
fere with the liberty of even the devil himself (if there be a 
devil) to do his best, he being judge: and he being left to 
take the consequences, till the crop he reaps teaches him a 
better style of seed sowing! 

“Such intrusion is the sin of sins: and is the source of all 
our woes and the retarder (that is seemingly) of Peace-filled 
advancement. 

“Yet,” he exclaimed honestly, “I know I cannot keep out 
of it and do my best. But there is one thing I will not put up 
with: that is, this muss of mysticism. For I declare now 
before the Hosts of Heaven, that if Sophism is permitted to 
teach that it is right for a very good man to do wrong, then 
there is nothing to hinder Sophism from declaring that ^it is 
wrong for a very bad man to do right’!” 

“That is what a good many bad men (if there be any real 
bad men) will tell you!” said some one. “Both classes will 
say ‘circumstances alter cases.’ And then will come in the 
quibble and the quake of the foundations of Earth. And 
the nether-regions will boil up to the surface: and Anarchy 
will prevail and guns will be fired to kill Anarchy — all because 
Sophism has practically declared that it is ‘right for a very 
good man to do wrong’: as, for instance, in those little deeds 
of levitation, indulged in by those who, at a distance, are sup- 
posed (and it is by some vouched for) to lightly ‘lift’ things 
which less miraculously-equipped ‘poor men’ might find even 
skilled ‘light fingers’ incompetent to translate to other places: 
— which manoeuvres, if right, might, with very good reason, 
cause the assertion that it is wrong for a very bad man to 
do ( ?) right. 


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343 


^^The infernos are boiled to the surface/^ added the angel- 
faced girl with just such a scientific-inspection of the matter, 
as she would give to the struggles between the attempt of her 
Roses to live and the equal attempt of their devourers to live 
by devouring the roses. '^But this fermentation and seething- 
smudge, will rise and ^scum\: and Good Discriminative Faculty, 
will then reign influentially Vice-gerent in every soul: from 
the least even to the greatest.’^ 

Said Allierri, rising to his feet, ^^That — Discriminative- 
faculty — is the saving Grace of the Epoch without which 
Nothing. 

is the last hour before dawn.^' 

He halted with a concussionary sharpness which, in the 
rebound, sent this term back, meaningless. For dawn had 
succeeded dark and days had followed dawns and then, 
noons and nights and recurrent-dawns had succeeded each 
other time after time for years and aeons innumerable. 
What more then, would the coming dawn bring than the 
last darkness had done? They had talked much, they had 
reviewed much : and now what was there to anticipate at dawn ? 

They were all weary: for to their health-constructive way 
of life, a night spent in the reviewal of the 'past was out of 
right order. 

Their nights were habitually given to that companionship 
with Immortals, which is co-natural to the simple and single- 
minded as these fold their robes about them and, uniting 
soul with Spirit, leave the body to rest while its tenant, se- 
renely arising to its natal plane, there bathes in Lethe^s waters. 

The Landseers had been taught to so sleep that, after sleep 
had done its work for them, it then, at dawn, withdrew: and 
left the Spirit-refreshed soul to return to the long quiescent 
body, re-invigorating it. 

But this night neither soul nor body had had rest. Concen- 
trated they had worked, re-living again (not only the scenes 
of the epochical decade since Landseer^s taking-off, but) 
the doings of others whose wreckage or whose accumulated 
soul-wealth, like jetsam had been floated in for their discrimi- 
native inspection, as the ^^sea gave up its dead.^^ 

To “souls standing^’ in free perspicuity of Thought, the 
coming Dawn should bring a realization that, extreme though 


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had been the endurance requisite that night to the gathering 
up of history, personal and epochical : and more extreme though 
had been the endurance of the electrizing-presences of em- 
bodied and disembodied personalities; yet, all this, had been 
no more of a mental deluge than is that, which is commonly 
poured in on our souls everywhere today, as minds and homes 
are engulfed in the thought-impulsions sent in by books, 
papers, lectures and preachments concerning things, good, 
disastrous and diabolic, planned, dreamed and done. For 
when from these things are eliminated the scientific facts of 
the evolution of the Human-race^ then, the coming of the floods 
but tends to rob individuals of time and ability to secure that 
concentration of Being lacking which the soul, remaining 
bodily-burdened night and day, gets little refreshment either 
for itself or to give to its tenement. 

Something like this Ishtar said, in answer to the words, ^^It 
is the last hour before Dawn,^’ adding, ^^The chief difference 
between us and some others, is, that, from the first, we have 
refused to go under the flood which, sweeps away a soul-fall- 
ing into it: severing it from the connection which a ^soul-stand- 
ing’ keeps with the source of its divinity. Which connection 
enables it to effect by its own interior-firmness ^any achieve- 
ment in the whole series of actions: and to do any deed, how- 
ever arduous, excellent and marvelous, devoid of any external 
aid whatever.’ ” 

She added again: '‘It is my belief, therefore, that this dawn 
should bring to such souls a release from puny-plans, worth- 
less-wordiness and doubt-filled-deeds. For at this new Dawn, 
'souls standing’ wholesomely self harmonized, will far-reach- 
ingly Act, through concentratedly being at one with Supernal 
Life.” 

This, to Geraldine, seemed like a proposed abandonment of 
Action. For like others, when they at last get ready to take 
up self-sacrificial activities, she did not see that there may be a 
plane prepared for those who are prepared to occupy it: pre- 
cisely because of the fact that they have worked-o\xi their 
salvation from those ‘works,’ their-early-patient-continuance- 
in which through sc2;en-reincarnations (or, perhaps, through 
seven-times-twice seven) had builded up in them such fire- 
proof-characters as enable them now to stand unfailing, amid 
the fires of these Last Days. 


Who Builds? 


345 


Something of this Lamed Landseer said explanatory of 
Ishtar^s statement and stage of Being. Revealing the facts, 
with a gravity which was the essence of Ishtar^s (and her 
own) sept-emberized lives. 

But this brought from Tama an outcry against running the 
risk of thus coming under that orientalizing-influence which, 
from afar, brings on womanhood, a psychic-inundation; flood- 
ing it with sedge- water-stagnations : whence, ^^its nature is 
altered and diversely distracted by irregular-affections.^’ 

“Yes!” said Jerome, “inundations — the rebutting of which 
arouses the wrath and the injurious enmity of those ‘New 
in Power,’ causing them to do their utmost to reduce and 
repress the utterance of Woman’s promethean-foresight and 
insight by binding her, Vital-devoured, against the Rock 
of hard-helplessness; till, in submission to such infernalism, she 
is ready to affirm as Folly, the Truths she had descended to 
Earth but to bring to its denizens.” Then — with an increased 
repellence of everything which tends to mystify facts relative 
to the Maha Devas, or that tends to separate womanhood from 
that free perspicuity of Thought and act, which, keeping hold 
on the Intellectus Illustratus (or breath-of The-Spirit of lives) 
enables that Intellectus Illustratus to enable man to so as- 
similate It that ‘the assimilation converts the inferior-por- 
tion of his trinitized-being to Spirit’; — Jerome became an- 
gered at having himself to use mystic-terms in the very 
business of rejecting them! And next, he realized he was 
so “an hungered” for something outside of and higher than 
self, that he knew he would if he could, pull down to the level 
of his hungers even Spiritus Mundi. Then he became angry 
at his “hungers,” feeling that there was a certain element 
in them which “tended to obscure and darken the Superior 
portions of his Being,” and he said so; adding, “That Superior 
portion is called ‘the Mens’ or Concealed Intelligence: which — ” 

Then he halted, looking at Ishtar much as a big brown-eyed 
boy looks at his Mother when he does not quite know what 
he is trying to explain and so, of course, does not know how to 
explain it. And this look brought to Ishtar’s mind the matter 
over which, as children, they used to puzzle, when in their 
theatrical play of “laying the Corner-stone” of the first-part-of 
the Capitol at Washington, they were at a loss to know what 


346 


Who Builds ? 


the ^'Father of his country in 1793, deposited in the vase 
that was set in the cavity that was cut in the heart of the 
corner-stone of that building. So she answered his look by 

continuing his sentence, saying, the 

concealed intelligence, {^the Mens^) is the ‘Hidden’ which is 
hidden in the buried- vase-of-Being ; but which, when the 
covering-stone is removed from the sepulchre, is as ready to 
come forth and to become the topmost-stone of Man’s being, as 
the air is to ascend through illimitable-space.” 

Then a sense of mixed wonder as to whether she knew what 
she was talking about and a fiercer sense of wrath that she 
should be presuming to talk so teachingly at all, stirred up 
the serpentine fangs of his lower-being, bringing from poor 
Jerome, after a pause, the darkling question: “But what has 
all this to do with concentrating Being? Whose Being? Do 
not say (however reverently), God’s. For that word is used 
in as many senses as there are users of it.” 

Silence met his question. For the fierce shock of his pas- 
sionate nature’s search into this natural fact of that Scientific 
Religion which does bind souls up with that God who is Spirit, 
— sent each and all a hunting for the Being, whom they all 
rightly knew as ‘the Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all 
that in them is,’ and whom, ‘to know aright, is Life Eternal.’ 

Impatiently he broke the silence, frowning imperatively at 
Ishtar, saying, “I ask you, Ishtar, whose Being is to be con- 
centrated?” his eyes travelling suddenly to Geraldine, never- 
theless. 

Then Ishtar said, securely, “Each, his own. Then, he will 
thus remove the stone from the sepulchre, where has been 
entombed, his Own-Highest One. And his Own will come to 
Him—” 

“ — and Be him,” interpolated Geraldine, “leaving him 
with no need of help from any, but The Spirit-of-Spirits. Then 
his Day will Dawn!” 

Jerome and some others bowed the head. Tama and some 
others, standing, raised palms, turned Heavenward, held firm, 
as if to catch and hold what came from thence. 


Then said Ishtar: 

“I, for one, will unflinchingly stand for the Scientific Prin- 


Who Builds ? 


347 


ciple of Life which firmly holds us in union with Supernally 
Creative Purity. And I will stand against the deluge of what- 
ever deprives us of free schools, free press, free thought, free 
speech the active enjoyment of which, will lift general Intel- 
ligence to scale such heights, as will leave no necessity for an 
exclusive Hierarchical Oligarchy: nor for the encroachment 
of any intellectually-unremunerative sacerdotalism, but which, 
instead, will arouse to activity the individual Con-Science, 
that, ^knowing with’ Omni-Science, never seeks to domineer 
over others: each of whom (when left to the freedom of in- 
spirational-intelligence) will cultivate union (not with the 
blunders of over-bearing dictators but) with Omni-Science, 
at first hand. For when the ‘Earth seems old, when Faith 
seems doting, it is She, Science, which discovers the world 
is young, and teaches a language to its lisping tongue.’ ” 

“And yet, to think,” ejaculated Frantze, “of the stupidity 
shown by Socrates’ words: ‘I am always anxious to learn: 
but from fields and trees I learn nothing.’ Possibly he had 
too narrowly limited himself to ideals culled from such words 
as ‘ SeZ/-reverence, ASeZ/-knowledge, and Self-control: these 
alone ‘lead life to sovereign power.’ If, instead, the statement 
was ‘lead man to sovereign power,’ — that would illustrate the 
conditions, which at last, but brought Socrates to unflinch- 
ingly drink a cup of hemlock from one of the trees, from which 
he had said, he had ‘learned nothing.’ 


“I am saying,” continued Lord Aneuland, “the sorts of 
selves of which some men gain ‘knowledge,’ and which they 
come to ‘reverence,’ and seek to ‘control,’ are selves which, 
under this management, do not ‘lead life to sovereign power’: 
though that sort of reverence, knowledge, and control may 
lead such a man to utilize what portion of Life there is in him, 
for the attainment of his own aims. Forgetting, meanwhile, 
that the highest prerogatives of his vital possessions, are de- 
pendent on his capacity for the con^amance (or continence) of 
this mighty, Moral-Motor power. And forgetful that Man 
attains to the Real business of Eternal-Existence only as he 
(in his USE of ‘the portion of Life that is divided out to him’) 
— recognized IT, as but ‘a 'portion of The Power, which, limit- 
less and supernal exists far-out-and-beyond and over-and- 


348 


Who Builds ? 


above All that man^s utmost stretch of imagination can la)’' 
hold upon: though also, it is in and through ^little man as 
well/ And what I am impressing on myself and others is, 
that unless man keeps a steadfast hold on the recognition that 
unattained-Realms stupendously overshadow him, he will 
never hold up out of the present general meMe of incriminat- 
ing-blunder-business enough to escape being inundated in the 
turbidity of that animalizing-selfhood which hesitates not to 
sacrifice others (yes, every living-thing) to its own love of 
Love and of personal-dominion. 

am not lecturing others. I am lecturing myself: the 
Lord Aneuland whose temptations amid newly defined duties 
and urgencies, may turn him out of his philosophical-repose 
into a boastful, talkative, domineering Forgetter of the fact, 
that he is to act only when Spirit-pure Power ^ comes uncalled 
for.^ And that then, he is to act in fealty to that scientific 
unwritten Law; obedience to which prepares one to ^stand- 
unfalling’ under the Barphometic-baptism incident to the 
response-ability which alone can meet the new demands of the 
New Age. I have long faced this,^^ he said, as simply as a 
child; his countenance a ’beam with the inherent seraphic- 
nature which once we supposed, was natal only to disembod- 
ied Spirits: — not realizing that the once disembodied, embody 
now and ^walk the earth like some transparent things,’ pur- 
posed to do the will-of- Wisdom and thereby, to reglorify 
befittingly on Earth yet higher realms than erst had come in 
contact with this ^sorrowful star.’ 

Thinking on this possible future for men, with a childlike 
simplicity he said: — 

wonder what sort of a man the wordy Socrates would 
have been if, instead of scorning the language of fields, trees 
and wife, he had wisely learned from them, the truths which 
he may have drunk in at last, with his cup-of-hemlock : — but, 
of which, their united attempts to teach him, have left the 
Earth little that is more memorable than that gruesome draught, 
and the name ^Zantippe,’ which he made wrongly to become 
the synonym for ‘a scold.’ 

‘‘We here, all know what she had to tell him: and why, 
weeping, she was dragged away, when she honorably would 
have prevented the needlessly-premature death of this typical 


Who Builds ? 


349 


Socrates the Builders of whom, such ^scolds’ often are. I 
wonder how much nicer a man he would have become, if — like 
us, he had amiably learned from fields, trees and woman- 
hood?’^ 

^^So wonder we all of us,” responded the company with 
blithe gratitude to the Blessed Science of Life, and to the new 
appreciation now had, of the generosity of the Life-Giver who 
Builds. 

Then as the morning sun flooded the Earth with glory, 
they again joined in singing the roundelay, ‘^Praise the Grand 
Master of the Universal I^odge.” 





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